


Sailor Moon: Mindful of Love

by Alruneia



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29365104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alruneia/pseuds/Alruneia
Summary: One day, a short while after the resolution of the Black Moon conflict, a strange airship arrives in the skies above Tokyo. Usagi and the others take note of the airship, but pay it no mind, for better or for worse...
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

One day, on a warm, sunny afternoon, right as the school bells chimed for the last time, an airship descended into the airspace above the Juuban district of Tokyo. The unidentified zeppelin consisted of a large gondola under an even larger balloon, with the balloon taking on a strange shape, like a middle point between a gemstone and a pinecone. Sunlight danced on the airship’s sides, casting glittering lights on the ground below as it floated around in the air. Within the gondola, however, darkness reigned supreme. Surrounded by an almost magical lack of light, a figure stood by one of the gondola’s windows, almost invisible as she stared down at the city below.

“So this is what a human city looks like now,” the hidden woman commented, her low-pitched, yet pure voice filling the gondola. “Humans… Nothing else on this planet could have made anything like this. Almost all animals live from day to day and move by instinct, and they would never have the ambition to construct something as advanced as this… but humans are different. Humans are stronger. It’s not their physical strength, but their minds and spirits, that makes them stand above nature around them. Not only that, but they have a far stronger sense of individuality than animals do. Each human has its own personality, born from its unique memories and ambitions. Two humans might react as differently to the same stimuli as two separate species of other animals would… Do humans even know how much energy lies within that sense of individuality? I do.” The woman seemed to tilt her head backwards. “What about you, Garnets…?”

##  ** Sailor Moon: Mindful of Love **

### Act 1: Mindless Memory

“Whew,” Makoto commented, stretching her back with her arms behind her head as she walked away from Juuban Junior High with Usagi and Ami. “Finally out in the sun!”  
“Usagi _-chan_ ,” Ami asked, “you look a bit down. Did you get bad test results again?”  
“Do we have to talk about that,” Usagi replied, before starting to cry. “I only got 26 points! My mom is gonna kick me out of the house!!”  
“You just need to start studying more,” Ami said. “These tests aren’t very difficult if you read the material first.”  
“You’re fighting an uphill battle, Ami _-chan_ ,” Makoto shot in. “Besides, you study so much that your perspective on what’s difficult or not is a bit skewed.” In response, Ami looked away and laughed weakly, slightly embarrassed.  
“Hey, look,” Makoto said as the three left the school grounds, seeing a familiar blonde girl by the road. “Minako _-chan_ is here.”  
“Yahoo,” Minako waved, “I decided to drop by and say hello! How’s everyone doing today?”  
In response, Makoto pointed at the sobbing Usagi.  
“A test, right,” Minako guessed. Usagi nodded as a reply. “I can relate… Anyway, what’s everyone doing today? Anyone got any plans?”  
“I’m going on a date with Mamo _-chan_ today,” Usagi declared with hearts in her eyes, her mood flipping like a switch.  
“Er, okay,” Minako reacted. “Have fun…! What about you two?”  
“I’ve got cram school,” Ami said, “but before that I’m going swimming.”  
“Ooh, are you going to the beach,” Minako asked with twinkles in her eyes. “That sounds great!”  
“Oh, no, sorry,” Ami corrected, “I’m going to the indoor pool to do swimming training.”  
“Oh…”  
“I was thinking about buying some houseplants later,” Makoto said, to which the other girls immediately reacted with astonishment.  
“Mako _-chan_ ,” Ami asked, “don’t you already have fifteen?”  
“I do, but two more couldn’t hurt, right? I already know where to place them,” Makoto responded.  
“Everyone’s got something to do, then,” Minako summarised, avoiding saying anything about what her own plans were, as she had none.  
“Do you want to come along while I go shopping,” Makoto asked, picking up on why Minako had really showed up.  
“Really,” Minako asked, her eyes lighting up. “I mean, if you don’t mind!”  
Having reached a crossroads while walking, the four girls said some quick goodbyes before they split up and headed to their destinations.

A few minutes later, Minako and Makoto were walking around inside a flower shop, Makoto browsing for the best plants and Minako mainly just looking.  
“Here it is,” Makoto suddenly exclaimed. “They have it after all!”  
“Here’s what,” Minako asked, walking over.  
“This is a wisteria sapling! _Wisteria floribunda_ , to be specific.”  
“Wiste-what? …Don’t saplings grow into trees? Mako _-chan_ , you live in an apartment!”  
“I’m going to make a bonsai tree out of it,” Makoto proclaimed.  
“Oh! Right,” Minako replied. “I guess I’ll have to wait and see how it turns out. What else were you looking for?”  
“This is the main plant I wanted, so I’ll just grab something that fits in. Let the heart decide, you know?”  
“I can get behind that kind of logic!”  
While waiting for Makoto to find something, Minako walked over to the window and looked outside. Almost instantly, she spotted the oddly shaped airship floating around in the sky. Before she had time to think about it, however, Makoto called her over again.

“Minako _-chan_ ,” Makoto said, “look at this one. Have you ever seen a flower like this?”  
Makoto hinted at a small potted flower that looked like a crossing between a rose and a daisy. The stem was shaped much like a rose’s stem, including the shape of the leaves, but had no thorns. Its petals were red and arranged like the petals of a rose, but thin as daisy petals and equally numerous. An additional ring of orange petals stood out horizontally below the red ones.  
“No,” Minako shrugged. “Mako _-chan_ , did you manage to find a plant even you don’t recognise?”  
“Apparently. Could you hold the wisteria sapling for me? I don’t really have room for three new plants, but I have to buy this one too.”  
“Sure.”  
Minako and Makoto headed over to the counter and placed down the three potted plants; the wisteria sapling, an aloe vera plant and the strange flower.  
“Excuse me,” Makoto asked the cashier, who was a teenage girl, barely older than Makoto herself. “Do you know anything about this flower?”  
“Sorry,” the cashier replied while bagging the plants. “I’m new here and I just handle the sales, so I’m not an expert yet.”  
“Oh well, that’s okay,” Makoto said. “I’ll look into it when I get home.”  
“Thank you for your purchase,” the cashier waved as Minako and Makoto left the store. “Please come again!”

“Mako _-chan_ ,” Minako asked, “have you noticed the airship hanging around?”  
“An airship,” Makoto asked back, looking up. “Oh yeah, there it is! What’s with the shape of the balloon?”  
“Right? It looks super weird.”  
“I guess you have to be a little weird in order to decide to get an airship at all,” Makoto shrugged.  
“That’s for sure,” Minako laughed.  
“Anyway, I’m going to head home and try to figure out what this flower is. It’s not going to be very exciting unless you’re really interested, though.”  
“I don’t think I’m familiar enough with the field to appreciate that properly, so that’s fine. Let’s meet up some other time, though!”  
“Right. See you around, Minako _-chan_!”  
“Bye-bye, Mako _-chan_!”  
Minako and Makoto parted ways, each of them heading home.

At the swimming hall, Ami was preparing to make an attempt at her personal best, crossing the pool in a calm, consistent crawl. When she reached the end of the pool, she climbed up on the edge and began looking at the large clock on the wall. The instant the clock ticked over to a new minute, Ami dove back into the pool and began swimming as fast as she could, slicing through the water like a knife. The world seemed to stand still around her while she pushed her body to its limit, flipping around as she reached the far side of the pool and launching herself off the wall. The fifty meter long pool seemed to stretch to infinity, but Ami paid the optical illusion no mind, crossing the azure abyss with ease. Another two edge kicks later, she finished her time trial, grabbing onto the edge of the pool to let her body rest.

“Looks like I kept good track of the time,” Ami quietly commented to herself, looking at the wall clock. “My times should be accurate down to one decisecond… 50 meters, 24.2 seconds. 100 meters, 52.6 seconds. 200 meters, 1 minute and 56.8 seconds. 1.4 seconds behind my best 200 meter time. I seem to lose a bit of speed on the longer distances…”  
Ami noticed that everybody else in the hall was looking at her, their expressions ranging from impressed to astonished, and she started blushing in embarrassment.  
“U-um,” she stammered, before spotting the airship through the windows. “Hey, look, there’s a zeppelin up there!”  
“Woah, look at that,” a teenage boy commented, having turned around to look. “Check out the funky design on that balloon!”  
With the other swimmers distracted, Ami climbed out of the pool and headed to the dressing room.  
“Cram school doesn’t start for quite a while,” Ami thought as she removed her swimsuit, grabbed her towel and headed off to the shower. “Maybe I’ll try the sauna today…”  
When she turned on the shower water to rinse the chlorinated pool water off her body, Ami had a strange feeling wash over her, leaving her with a surprised expression.  
“Were these showers always this pleasant,” Ami thought, closing her eyes. “It’s like I’m being gently embraced by the water… I can’t remember ever feeling like this just from shower water before. Maybe I’ll drop the sauna and stay in here a little longer instead, and just… forget about everything for a while…”

At the park, Usagi was sitting on a bench, impatiently kicking her legs and looking around while waiting for Mamoru. As she waited, several other couples walked by both in front of her and in the background, and she started growing jealous. Just before she felt like she was about to burst, Usagi felt a hand pat her head, making her jump.  
“Hey, Usako,” Mamoru said, retracting his hand. “Sorry I’m late.”  
Usagi turned around to look at Mamoru. He was dressed in a pink short-sleeved button up shirt, khaki pants and black sneakers.  
“Mamo _-chan_ ,” Usagi sang, instantly dropping all her negative emotions as she got on her feet and locked arms with him. “It’s okay! Let’s go do something!”  
“Sure, did you have anything in mind?”  
“Umm… Well, we could go see a movie! Or head out to the bay! Or maybe go get some ice cream! Or, or…”  
“Would you like me to decide,” Mamoru laughed, scratching his head.  
“Sure,” Usagi quickly replied.  
“Let’s see… I heard from Motoki that they’ve got a new game at the Crown. It’s a co-op game, so we could try it out together. How does that sound?”  
“Ooh, okay, let’s try it!”  
Usagi and Mamoru began heading out of the park and towards the Game Center Crown arcade, Usagi still tightly holding onto Mamoru’s arm.

Arriving back at her apartment, Makoto began unpacking her plants. She first placed the aloe vera plant in her bathroom next to two other succulents, then placed the wisteria sapling on her living room table, planning to repot it later on. Then, she arrived at the unidentified flower, which she had no planned place for. Makoto temporarily placed the flower on the table and moved onto watering her plants, moving around the apartment in a fashion akin to a dance as she watered each plant with just the right amount of water. She was once again stumped by the mystery flower, however, so she was forced to make a random guess.  
“I really don’t know what this daisy rose… thing… is,” Makoto thought to herself. “Hopefully that was an appropriate amount of water. Where did I put my flora book again? …Oh, but I should make dinner first.”  
Makoto went to the kitchen side of her living room and began taking out ingredients from the cupboards and shelves. However, she did not get much further than grabbing a pack of rice before she was interrupted by a strange scent reaching her nose.  
“What’s this aroma,” she thought. “It’s so strong… it’s like all my plants just went into full bloom ten times over! Actually, isn’t that exactly what this smell is?”  
Makoto headed back to her table and sat down to inspect the unidentified flower.  
“Did you cause this,” she wondered. “Are you some kind of magic mystery flower?”  
She tried smelling the strange plant, though it did not tell her much.  
“This one doesn’t have any kind of strong scent… I’m not sure what the deal is here. I should really go find my flora book. This is a really soothing aroma, though… Maybe I’ll just sit like this for a minute first and just… forget about everything…”

At Hikawa Shrine, Rei finished up tidying the shrine grounds, her last chore for the day. After casting a quick glance at Phobos and Deimos, who were calmly sitting in one of the trees encircling the grounds, Rei put away her broom and headed inside. As she walked through the door, a slight sense of unease entered her mind, and her expression turned from content to concerned. Rei immediately began setting up one of her fortune-telling fires, sitting down by it and meditating as it began to burn. Once the fire got going, the flames burned calmly for several minutes while Rei patiently waited. Then, out of nowhere, the fire flared up just for a second, and within the temporary blaze, she saw a head. Rei only had time to see that it was a woman’s head, a woman with long, sharp ears and long, dark hair, who seemed to be pale-skinned. Before she could make anything else out, the image vanished and the fire returned to normal.

“What in the world,” Rei muttered to herself. “Who was that…? Is a new enemy about to appear?”  
“Rei _-chan_ ,” her grandfather called, walking into the room carrying a small tray. “I’ve got some tea if you’d like.”  
“Thank you,” Rei answered, “but right now I need to focus on reading the fire.”  
“That’s alright, I’ll just watch it with you,” the old man responded, putting the tray with the teacups down and sitting down on the floor. “What a beautiful fire you’ve made tonight! Did you add something special to it?”  
“What do you mean,” Rei asked, turning her head to find that the flames had changed while she was looking away. The fire was now letting off brilliant red, orange and yellow lights, as if it consisted of fireworks. “…No, I didn’t do this…!”  
“Perhaps there was something in the wood,” her grandfather suggested. “The lights and warmth are captivating!”  
“…It’s hard to focus on trying to read this fire,” Rei commented. “I don’t feel like doing anything but watch…”  
“Watching a show like this really makes you feel like you could just forget about everything, doesn’t it…”  
“Yeah…”

At the Game Center Crown arcade, Usagi and Mamoru waved goodbye to Motoki as they began heading out. It was now dark outside, and the tip of the crescent moon was just barely visible over the Tokyo highrises. As the night was still young, Usagi and Mamoru headed back to the park, sitting down at a bench by a fountain.  
“It’s pretty warm outside tonight,” Mamoru commented. “It’s peaceful, too. Really peaceful…”  
“It’s a perfect night,” Usagi said, leaning over to rest her head on Mamoru’s shoulder. “Look at how bright and pretty the crescent moon is!”  
“Yeah,” Mamoru smiled. “…Hey, Usako, look next to the moon. There’s an airship floating around up there.”  
“Oh, wow! Doesn’t it look a little weird? But imagine having an airship and travelling all over the world! It’d be so romantic!”  
“If you had an airship, where would you go with it?”  
“To wherever you are, Mamo _-chan_ ,” Usagi smiled.  
“And if I was on the ship with you?”  
“Then I’d let you decide!”  
“I see,” Mamoru chuckled. “Do you want to move on, or should we sit here a bit longer?”  
“Let’s stay here for a while,” Usagi said. “It’s nice to sit like this, it feels like I could just forget about everything else in the world…”  
“Yeah,” Mamoru nodded, “I know what you mean…”

At her house, Minako sat in her room, spinning a pen around with a small pile of homework lying untouched on her desk. She had changed out of her school uniform and was wearing a loose-fit pink top with an orange neck along with a green skirt. While she avoided doing her schoolwork, she listened to the evening radio, and Artemis listened as well, lying by the window and looking up at the moon.  
“We continue our reading of listener-submitted love stories,” the radio host, a man with a smooth, dark voice, said. “This letter was submitted by S _-chan_. Stories submitted under pseudonyms are, of course, always welcome. Ahem… On a particularly stormy day in June, I was running through the rain, trying to catch the bus to reach school on time, when a gust of wind ripped my umbrella out of my hands and threw off my balance. I shut my eyes and prepared to hit the ground, but instead, I fell into a gentle embrace. When I opened my eyes, and my gaze met his, it felt like time stopped…”  
“What an encounter,” Minako sighed. “Imagine meeting your dream prince just like that…”  
“I wonder if the story hasn’t been embellished just a bit,” Artemis commented. Minako sighed again, seemingly not having heard him. “…You’re not getting any work done, are you, Mina?”  
“Hush, I’m in my element,” Minako swiftly replied, before sighing yet again. “Oh, to be surrounded by pure love like this… I could listen to these stories forever, just feel the happiness and love in the world and forget about everything else… not! Ah, I’m jealous!”  
“That was weird,” Artemis thought to himself, “Mina seemed uncharacteristically selfless there for a second.”  
“Listening to love is nice, but I want to experience it myself too,” Minako commented as she turned the radio off and walked over to the window. “Look, that airship is still there…”  
“It arrived early in the afternoon,” Artemis said. “I don’t think it’s moved much since then. It’s got such a strange shape; I wonder if some eccentric billionaire owns it?”  
“Some rich person seeing Tokyo from above… I guess that makes sense,” Minako responded.  
“In any case, shouldn’t you be doing your homework by now?”  
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control!”  
“Under control…? Mina, you’re not thinking of using your magic items to cheat, are you- Agh!” Artemis suddenly found himself interrupted as Luna jumped into the room through the window and landed on him.  
“Minako _-chan_ , Artemis,” Luna exclaimed as she stepped off of the latter, “you’re both still here, thank goodness!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amount of houseplants Makoto has is based on how many moons Jupiter has. The fact that she keeps buying more is because new moons keep getting discovered. 17 moons had been discovered by the early 1990s, which is when Sailor Moon takes place (supposedly), though now in the 2020s we’re aware of over 70. If Wikipedia isn’t lying, anyway.
> 
> Inspiration for stories can come from completely random places. Ami’s situation in this chapter is loosely based on how I got the inspiration to come up with this story in the first place! I don’t know why my brain decided to go “what if this was a Sailor Moon plot” while I was taking a shower, but it did, and here we are. It really is easy to just forget about everything when you’re enjoying a comfy, hot shower. Or is that just me?


	2. Chapter 2

### Act 2: Mystery - Venus

“Minako _-chan_ ,” Luna exclaimed, “Artemis! You’re both still here, thank goodness!”  
“Luna,” Artemis reacted. “What do you mean? Is something going on over at Usagi _-chan_ ’s house?”  
“No, that’s just it,” Luna replied. “Nothing is going on, because nobody except Usagi _-chan_ ’s father is home!”  
“So… everyone else is out shopping or something?”  
“I doubt it. This is really uncharacteristic of the household… so I tried to contact Usagi _-chan_ through her communicator to ask where she was, but it wouldn’t work at all! Actually, I haven’t been able to contact anybody! Minako _-chan_ , you didn’t hear me try to contact you either, right?”  
“No,” Minako confirmed, “I’ve got the communicator right here and I haven’t heard anything.”  
“Would the two of you mind helping me look for Usagi _-chan_ ,” Luna requested. “I can’t figure out where she’s gone off to, and it’s getting oddly late now…”  
“Absolutely,” Minako declared. “I’ve just gotta get out of the house first. Let’s see, I need a good excuse… oh, I know! Mama, Papa, Usagi _-chan_ ’s cat just jumped into my room! I need to help her get back home!”  
Silence filled the air as Minako waited for a response. After a few seconds, she turned to look at Artemis, who was just as confused as her.  
“Um… Hello?”  
Minako exited her room and headed to the living room, where she expected her parents to be. However, while the television was on in the room, nobody was present to watch it.  
“But… I didn’t hear them leave,” Minako commented in bewilderment, “and they would’ve turned the TV off if they did… Mama? Papa? Where did you go?”  
“This is unnatural,” Artemis said to Luna. “It’s not a coincidence that people are missing from both our households.”  
“Exactly,” Luna nodded. “The streets outside are emptier than usual, too. Something’s happening.”  
“I need to save Mama and Papa from some kind of enemy, don’t I,” Minako cut in. “Hey, you only said that you couldn’t contact the others, right, Luna? Let’s head to Rei’s place! I’m sure she’s still there. Maybe she can use her fire to find out what’s going on!”  
“Good thinking, Mina,” Artemis said. “We should get going right away!”

After grabbing a deep red jacket and putting it on, Minako ran out of her house and towards the closest bus stop. Then, she realised that the bus drivers had probably disappeared as well, and she started walking to the shrine. Artemis and Luna caught up to Minako while she made her way down the Juuban streets, and the three began walking through the oddly silent evening. Instead of a bustling Tokyo district, all they were met with was empty pavements, roads without cars and an ambience of nothing but rustling leaves and tumbling litter in the wind. Eventually, Minako made her way to Hikawa Shrine, starting to walk up the long staircase leading to the shrine grounds. There, she met another person, almost jumping out of her skin and falling down the stairs when she spotted her.

“Good evening,” the old lady greeted.  
“H-hello,” Minako replied while recovering.  
“Visiting the shrine so late? How spiritual for a young lady! The shrine sure was quiet tonight, too.”  
“Oh, uh, sure… The shrine was quiet? How so?”  
“It didn’t seem like anybody had visited, or anybody was home. There were two birds flying around full of energy, though!”  
“Phobos and Deimos…? Er, anyway, thanks for telling me, old lady!” Minako began running up the stairs, and Artemis and Luna hurried after her.

“This doesn’t look too great,” Minako said as she reached the shrine grounds and found the area empty.  
“Rei _-chan_ and her grandfather might both have disappeared,” Luna conjectured. “We should check everywhere and make sure, though.”  
“Mina, it’d probably be a good idea to feed Phobos and Deimos while we’re here,” Artemis commented, looking up at the crows hectically flying around.  
“You’re right, both of you,” Minako said. “Let’s go search for Rei _-chan_! And some birdseed.”  
Minako and the cats split up, starting to search the shrine buildings. Minako quickly found some feed for Phobos and Deimos, but Luna and Artemis searched room after room without finding as much as a trace of Rei or her grandfather. After clumsily feeding the birds, Minako rejoined the search effort, looking through Rei’s bedroom before she met up with the cats by the fire chamber.  
“Shoot,” Minako said, “there really is nobody here…”  
“Luna, Mina, look,” Artemis cut in. “Look at the fire! The remains are still glowing!”  
“Did Rei _-chan_ already use the fire for fortune-telling,” Luna wondered. “What did she find out? Maybe she ran off to fight the enemy somewhere…”  
“Look, there’s two cups of tea over here,” Minako said. Curious, she grabbed one of the cups and attempted to take a sip, only to stop herself the instant the tea reached her lips. “Yuck! This is completely cold!”  
“Don’t you think Rei _-chan_ ’s grandfather would’ve had his tea even if Rei _-chan_ herself had to run,” Artemis asked. “I think something happened to them both…”  
“I think you’re right,” Minako nodded with a concerned expression. “Okay, let’s head to Mako _-chan_ ’s apartment and see if she’s there, and then Ami _-chan_ ’s place. Please let at least one of them be around…!”  
“Okay, let’s not waste any time,” Luna said. “The longer this lasts, the worse it’s going to get!”

Minako, Artemis and Luna hurriedly left Hikawa Shrine, running down the steep staircase and continuing as fast as they could towards Makoto’s apartment. The apartment was several blocks away, and the three eventually began running low on stamina. When she finally reached the steps up to the entrance to the building Makoto’s apartment was in, Minako almost collapsed, catching herself on the railing as she desperately tried to catch her breath. The cats were not faring much better, lying down on the asphalt to rest their legs while Minako eventually made her way inside.

“Phew… That was far,” Minako commented to herself as she began walking up the stairs. “Good thing nobody saw me sprinting like crazy like that, they’d probably start thinking things…!”  
Finding the correct apartment, Minako lightly knocked on the door and waited for a response.  
“…Mako _-chan_ ,” she eventually asked, “are you in there?”  
After waiting a few more seconds without hearing anything, Minako decided to try going in anyway. She found that the door was unlocked, though when she opened it, she quickly began feeling like her face was going to shrivel up.  
“Oh no,” she commented, before coughing. “What’s wrong with the air in here? The smell of plants is so strong that I can barely breathe! Mako _-chan_ , you didn’t suffocate, did you?”  
Minako began walking around in Makoto’s apartment while covering her nose and mouth with her left hand. She first checked the kitchen and the living room, then the bathroom, and finally, Makoto’s bedroom. However, every room was as vacant as the next.  
“I guess Ami _-chan_ was right,” Minako commented, her voice muffled by her hand. “Mako _-chan_ really did have exactly fifteen houseplants. Not counting the new ones we bought together, anyway. But… Where did that flower she didn’t recognise go? The plant pot is right here, but it’s empty, and I didn’t see the flower anywhere… and not Mako _-chan_ either.”  
After opening a few windows, Minako left Makoto’s apartment and headed back outside to regroup with Artemis and Luna.

“Mina,” Artemis greeted. “You’re back on your own. Nobody home, huh?”  
“Nope,” Minako replied, “there was nothing to find there except-”  
“What is that smell,” Luna cut in, trying to cover her snout with her paws somehow. “It’s like somebody smashed a thousand bottles of perfume!”  
“…Except that, yep,” Minako finished. “That’s from Mako _-chan_ ’s place. It’s never been that bad before… I think she’s getting desensitised.”  
“This isn’t natural,” Artemis said, reacting just as strongly as Luna. “The smell is stronger than an entire botanical garden!”  
“Well, there was one flower she bought earlier today that she didn’t recognise,” Minako recalled, “and when I checked the apartment now, it had mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind an empty plant pot… Anyway, we can figure that out later! Hopefully with Ami _-chan_ ’s help!”  
“Yes, let’s get away from this place,” Luna said, and Artemis quickly nodded. The two cats immediately started running, leaving Minako to chase after them.

After another sprint through the unfittingly empty city district, Minako reached the luxury apartment block Ami lived in. Hoping for the best, she first rang the bell labeled Mizuno at the entrance, hoping that Ami or her mother would respond through the intercom. There was no response at all, however, and Minako could do nothing but sigh.

“I think we’re on our own,” Minako said, turning to Artemis and Luna. “Ami _-chan_ isn’t the kind of person who would ignore the doorbell.”  
“Indeed,” Luna sighed. “This isn’t looking good…”  
“I have faith that we’ll be able to find everyone,” Artemis said. “And you’ve got plenty of experience operating on your own as Sailor V, Mina. We’ll get through this.”  
“You’re right, we’ve gotta keep our chin up,” Minako nodded. “Let’s check the apartment first. Mako _-chan_ ’s disappearance is probably related to that weird flower, so if Ami _-chan_ was here when she disappeared, we might find a clue!”  
“Good thinking, but I don’t think cats are allowed in,” Luna commented.  
“That’s fine, I have an idea. This just so happens to be the jacket I keep my old compact in!” Minako fished out the crescent compact she used when she was Sailor V from her pocket. “Crescent Moon Power, transform me into a cleaning lady!”

Instantly, Minako’s appearance was altered to match the employees at the cleaning company that worked on the apartment block. Along with a surprisingly stylish navy blue uniform, Minako was given a broom and a bucket. Artemis and Luna were placed in the bucket and out of sight, while Minako hurried inside, trying her best to make the bucket look like it was not heavy. She then walked right past the security post, blurting out that she was the new cleaning lady, and got into an elevator and made her way to the floor Ami’s apartment was on. She quickly found that the door to the apartment was locked, but with the keys included in her disguise, she managed to get in anyway. The apartment seemed to have been empty since morning, a suspicion that Minako got confirmed when she looked at the apartment’s high-tech alarm system and checked when it was last turned on. Leaving as quickly as she came, Minako locked the door, took the elevator back down, blurted out that she had the wrong building when she hurried past the security post, noticed that the security post was vacant, took a moment to feel silly, and finally left the apartment block.

“Ami _-chan_ said she was gonna go swimming at the indoor pool before studying,” Minako said as she removed her disguise. “I guess she never made it home.”  
“Searching the whole pool hall would be a big job,” Artemis commented.  
“But it would be worth it if we could figure out more of what’s going on,” Luna argued.  
“Maybe later, but we’re done searching for now,” Minako declared. “We’re gonna go to the source, even if I’m the only fighter available. That airship up there in the sky is the cause of all these disappearances, I’m sure of it!”  
“Wait,” Luna started, and Artemis finished. “We?”  
“Venus Star Power,” Minako shouted, holding her transformation rod high in the air, “Make Up!”  
Minako vanished in a brilliant light as she underwent her transformation, before emerging from the light as Sailor Venus.  
“Alright, come along, you two,” Minako said, before picking Luna and Artemis up and carrying them under her arms as she began to rapidly make her way towards the crystal zeppelin.

Artemis and Luna screamed as Sailor Venus broke into a full sprint down the Tokyo roads, clinging to her arms as hard as they could. Venus’ movements flowed like water as she navigated the city, nimbly avoiding lampposts, fences, parked cars and a few people while she rapidly approached the airship. One minute of running later, Minako found herself almost directly under the zeppelin, and she started looking for a route upwards. She quickly noticed the lights of the Tokyo Tower hitting her from the left, the enormous metal construct looking like a perfect way up. Venus moved Luna over to Artemis’ side, squeezing the two cats together, and began using her now free right arm along with her legs to manually climb the outside of the tower. On the way up, she passed the elevator on the inside of the tower, launching herself upwards faster than its engine could pull. A few moments later, Minako was standing on the very top of the Tokyo Tower, balancing on the narrow peak as she looked over to the airship.

“Looks like there’s still a fair distance left,” Sailor Venus commented. “I can’t exactly jump to it from here…”  
“Mina,” Artemis said with a strained voice. “If we’re done moving, would you mind loosening your grip a bit? It’s hard to breathe like this…”  
“Not yet, because I know a way to bridge the gap!”  
“Don’t you enjoy being close to me like this,” Luna quipped, struggling with her delivery due to being squeezed.  
“I-I didn’t say anything about that,” Artemis began to protest, before Minako cut him off.  
“Are you ready for the final leap? You better be! Venus Love-Me Chain!!”  
“What are you doing,” Artemis asked in a question that turned into a shout, as Sailor Venus’ attack latched onto the side of the airship and she began using it to climb towards it. With rapid and powerful movements, Venus made her way up the chain with nothing but her right arm.  
“I still need an opening,” Minako commented as she approached the airship. “We’re breaking through the wall! Crescent Beam Shower!!”  
Without moving her left arm, Sailor Venus rotated her left hand into position and used it to fire her beam attack, sending ray after ray of light at the side of the crystal zeppelin. The Crescent Beams easily peppered the airship’s wall, leaving behind a sizable hole, just big enough for Venus to slide through. Once inside, Minako’s fatigue finally caught up to her, and after letting go of the cats, she took a moment to collect herself before looking around.

“Woah, this place is weird,” Minako commented, finding herself in a seemingly endless expanse of dark purple space.  
“Shh,” Artemis whispered. “Keep your voice down, Mina, we should try to move around unnoticed if we can.”  
“Right, my bad… but move around? Where do we even start?”  
“Unless we’ve been completely turned around, we should try this direction,” Luna whispered, heading off to Minako’s left.  
“This place gives me the creeps,” Sailor Venus commented, walking next to Artemis and Luna with light steps. “It’s so much bigger in here than how it looked from outside…”  
“We may be in some kind of altered space,” Artemis suggested.  
“Or an alternate dimension,” Luna added.  
“No matter which it is, though, I’d say it’s likely that everyone who’s gone missing in the city is somewhere in here,” Artemis concluded.  
“They might be stuck here as prisoners, or they might not even have their human forms anymore,” Luna said. “If we find something in here, we should treat it carefully.”  
“Look,” Minako cut in, pointing ahead. “There’s light over there! Some kind of glittering blue light…”  
Increasing their pace, Venus and the cats followed the light. It quickly became clear that there was one main light source, in the form of blue light flowing through a doorway of some kind, with the glittering light only being reflections. As the three approached the doorway, the source of the glittering lights was revealed to be crystals; large piles of crystals shaped like stellated dodecahedra were placed next to the doorway.

“They’re like star crystals of some kind,” Minako commented as she arrived next to one of the piles. “There’s so many of them…”  
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Luna said, starting to poke at a different heap. “It’s almost like I can sense something from the crystals… and this one down here almost smells a bit like Usagi _-chan_ ’s mother…”  
“What,” Artemis reacted. “That would mean…”  
“These crystals are actually all the people that have gone missing,” Venus helped. “Look at the crystals’ colours… Notice how they’re all a little different? We’ve gotta try and find the ones that belong to the others! I bet they’ll have much stronger colours than these!”  
“Good thinking, Mina,” Artemis said. “Usagi _-chan_ ’s crystal will look just like the Silver Crystal, I bet.”  
Venus and the cats continued looking at the piles of crystals as carefully as they could, looking for any off-coloured crystals that could contain their allies. The search was inhibited by their attempts at staying silent, however, as they could not dig through the piles without making them collapse. After a few moments, Venus caught a glimpse of something in the corner of her eye.  
“Artemis, Luna, look,” Minako whispered. “Look at the purple colour of that crystal there! If it’s purple like this when it’s being hit by blue light, it’s going to have a strong colour under white light too, right?”  
“It’d be red,” Artemis helped.  
“Mhm,” Luna added, not opening her mouth.  
“So this has to be Rei _-chan_ ’s crystal, right? We have to take it,” Minako argued, before reaching over to the heap and pulling the crystal out. The moment she touched the crystal, barely even nudging it, the heap began to collapse, creating a cacophony of glass-like noises.  
“…Uh oh.”

Before she had time to find Rei’s crystal in the mess she had caused, Minako saw a figure appear in the doorway. The figure was tall and feminine, though most of her features were cloaked in shadow. She had visibly sharp ears, and her hair seemed to be dark and waist-length. She appeared to be wearing a long dress, though Venus could not make out the details. However, she could see that the figure was wearing strange metallic bracelets on her wrists, with a design that strongly reminded her of her own symbol, the symbol of Venus, though it was not quite the same. Before Minako could say anything, the woman in the doorway lifted her arms.  
“Get out,” the woman yelled with a silky smooth, deep voice, “thieves!!”  
Using some kind of move with her arms, the unknown woman sent Venus, Artemis and Luna flying backwards as if a gust of wind had taken them, and they continued tumbling backwards through the strange space for several seconds, until the dark purple emptiness was suddenly replaced with a starry sky.

“What in the world,” Sailor Venus commented, looking up at the night sky, before realising that she was falling. “Uwah! Artemis, Luna! Venus Love-Me Chain!!”  
Launching her chain multiple times, Venus collected the two cats while they plummeted towards the ground, before trying to latch onto anything nearby. Tokyo Tower was now too far away, but a nearby highrise building had multiple signs and advertising boards on it. The chain smashed through all the support beams it got coiled around, but for every attempt, Venus managed to slow down her descent a little more. Finally, on the last, lowest signpost, her speed was low enough for the sign not to break, and she was able to land on the ground relatively lightly.

“I… I don’t think I’d like to do that again,” Artemis commented. “I feel sick.”  
Luna shook her head, but did not say anything.  
“What’s wrong,” Artemis asked, looking at Luna’s mouth. “Do you need to puke?”  
Luna shook her head again.  
“At least we made it out okay,” Minako commented, having deactivated her transformation. “And we know more about what it is we’ve gotta do.”  
“Mina,” Artemis said.  
“But who was that,” Minako continued. “She’s powerful, whoever she is…”  
“Mina,” Artemis tried again.  
“And why did she turn everyone into crystals? She’s going to use the crystals for something, I’m sure of it, but what? What is she planning?”  
“Mina!”  
“Yeah?”  
“Could you maybe help Luna out a bit here?”  
Artemis nodded over to Luna, who was flailing her front legs around, seemingly pretending to scratch at her mouth.  
“Um, what is it,” Minako asked, crouching down, and Luna tried her best to motion for her to hold out her hand.  
“Are you sick,” she tried, only succeeding in making the cat flail even more.  
“No? I’m not sure what you’re trying to show me…”  
Luna walked over to Minako and hit her hand with her paw, then her own mouth with her knee.  
“Hand, mouth…? Oh, you have something!”  
Minako held an open hand under Luna’s mouth, and Luna opened her mouth as much as she could. Immediately, a crystal fell into Minako’s hand.

“Sorry,” Luna said, “I don’t exactly have hands to carry things with.”  
“This crystal is so vividly green,” Minako commented, before looking around at the lights around her. “It’s not a lighting thing, either, it really is green!”  
“There’s only one person I can think of who’d have a crystal with that colour,” Artemis said.  
“For sure,” Minako nodded. “Mako _-chan_ , this is you, isn’t it! How are we gonna get her back to normal, though?”  
“Let’s head home and try to make sense of things,” Artemis suggested. “And if nothing else, it’s getting really late. We’re going to need some rest.”  
“Right. Are you gonna stay with us tonight, Luna? It’d make the house feel a lot less empty.”  
“I suppose it can’t hurt,” Luna replied, before the three started walking back towards Minako’s house.

Back at Minako’s house, the group attempted to study the green crystal. The clock kept ticking closer and closer to midnight as they used all their senses on the crystal, shining different lights through it, listening to it and even smelling it. However, save for the hint of a scent just like Makoto’s, which only the cats were able to pick up, the green crystal seemed to be just a green crystal.  
“I… don’t think I’ve got much more to contribute,” Minako said, yawning. “I’m so tired and sleepy I can barely think straight…”  
“Me too,” Luna commented. “It’s been a stressful night…”  
“As wrong as it feels to just stop for the night, it is the best thing to do,” Artemis said. “We’ll be refreshed and ready to continue in the morning. I just hope we can afford it…”  
“That woman… What does she want all those crystals for,” Luna wondered.  
“You felt it too, didn’t you,” Artemis asked. “When she threw us out with that wind… It didn’t feel like an evil power at all.”  
“You’re right,” Luna said, “but… Sometimes people who aren’t evil do bad things. For example, Sailor Venus caused a bunch of property damage earlier.”  
“I’m right here, you know,” Minako quietly commented. “Oh! I just remembered!”  
“What is it,” Artemis asked.  
“You saw her bracelets, right?”  
“…No, I can’t say I paid attention to them.”  
“They looked really familiar. They were like hooks, or like… sickles with cross handles… I’ll just draw it.” Minako grabbed a pencil and drew a quick sketch on a piece of paper.  
“Mina, that’s the Venus symbol,” Artemis commented. “Are you sure you saw that?”  
“I’m not done yet.” Minako flipped her pencil to use the attached eraser, removing the lower left quarter-circle of the symbol. “There, that’s it.”  
“W-what,” Artemis and Luna both reacted.  
“The symbol of Ceres,” Luna said. “That shouldn’t be possible…!”  
“Ceres,” Minako asked. “…What’s wrong?”  
“There are three possibilities,” Artemis said. “One is that it’s just a coincidence, but the other two…”  
“What? What are the other two,” Minako asked.

“In the time of the Silver Millennium,” Luna explained, “there was a legend that spoke of a secluded civilisation living within the asteroid belt. Even back then, we were never really sure that they existed at all. According to the legend, they lived inside the asteroids in tiny communities that rarely contacted each other. If you wanted to meet them, you would have to find them.”  
“That’s the most likely option,” Artemis said. “That woman belongs to that civilisation. The last option… I really shouldn’t be telling you this, so please forget about it once we’ve resolved this.”  
“What,” Minako asked, “what is it…?”  
“You know that there are other Sailor Warriors out there. Sailor Pluto… Sailor Chibi Moon… There is also a Sailor Ceres.”  
“What?!”  
“She’s not supposed to exist in this time period! If the woman we met is Sailor Ceres, then some force has brought her here… It would be like fighting the Black Lady all over again, except we’re the only ones left to combat her!”  
“I… I think I’ll go to bed now,” Minako stammered.  
“Wait, Minako _-chan_ ,” Luna said, “I have an idea! Take the crystal with you!”  
“Do you mean I should sleep with the crystal,” Minako asked.  
“It might affect your dreams. It’s worth a try!”  
“Okay, I will. Good night.” Minako practically collapsed onto her bed, falling asleep instantly.

Chaotic images danced through Minako’s dreaming mind. Light surrounded by darkness, encapsulated in light. Lush jungle oases in a barren wasteland. Humans splitting into two, one copy running to their loved one and the other copy walking away without looking back. Minako began feeling like she was spinning, as if gravity itself was nothing but a joke. Instinctively, she reached for her transformation rod, but it was nowhere to be found. The world around her began to crumble, and she fell into the ground, a dark abyss starting to swallow her. Minako shrieked, trying desperately to grab onto something. Suddenly, she felt her arm get gripped by a hand, and the universe transformed around her. Before she could process anything, Minako found herself standing in Makoto’s apartment, and when she looked around, everything seemed completely normal. Minako quickly spotted Makoto herself, and she noticed that she was holding an empty plant pot. Makoto smiled, then looked down at the pot, as if to draw attention to it. She then placed it on her table and began planting a single seed in it. With gentle hand movements, Makoto prepared the soil, placed the green seed in a shallow depression she made with her finger, packed the soil around the seed, and then carefully watered it. Then, with the finger she stuck in the soil, she poked Minako in the forehead, and immediately, the world around her shattered like glass. Minako gasped as she jolted awake.

“Mina,” Artemis exclaimed, “are you okay?”  
“It looked like you were having a nightmare,” Luna added.  
“Pretty much,” Minako replied. “I can’t sleep like this… oh!” As she began to get up, Minako realised that she was still holding the green crystal. “I wonder if my dreams were caused by this thing…?”  
“Minako _-chan_ , what did you see,” Luna asked.  
“Chaos… just lots and lots of chaos.”  
“What kind of chaos?”  
“I don’t remember exactly what, but… no, wait! I remember suddenly being in Mako _-chan_ ’s apartment and seeing her plant a seed. Why do I remember that so clearly…?”  
“Maybe that’s all the crystal could show you,” Artemis hypothesised. “It might have been an attempt at communication.”  
“Mako _-chan_ didn’t say anything in the dream… but it does give me an idea,” Minako said as she jumped out of bed. “I’m gonna replicate what I saw!”  
“You’re going to plant something,” Artemis asked. “How could that help the crystal…?”  
“I’m gonna plant the crystal itself! Just let me find a plant pot first!” Minako began running around in her house, and Artemis and Luna tried their best to follow her.  
“Use the big one on the doorstep,” Artemis suggested. “You’ll have to take out the current flowers, but they’ll manage.”  
“Good idea,” Minako replied.  
“Sheesh, running around like this at six in the morning,” Luna commented.

Putting on some sneakers and stepping out into the morning sun, Minako began working on the plant pot by the door. Clumsily, she dug into the soil towards the outside of the pot, trying to get a good grip on all the flowers, their roots and the soil that contained them. After a few attempts, she managed to remove the plants intact, along with half of the soil in the pot. In the remaining dirt, she created a depression in the centre of the pot, which she placed the crystal in, before covering it up. Then, Minako looked around for a quick water source. The first thing she spotted was the garden hose, which she settled for. After blasting the pot with a beam of water and splashing mud everywhere, she managed to lower the pressure and water the pot properly. With the procedure clumsily but fully completed, she sat down and waited.

“This seems a bit silly,” Artemis commented. “Planting the crystal… It doesn’t look like anything is happening.”  
“Plants are slow to grow,” Minako said. “This is gonna work, just give it some time.”  
“Hm… In the meantime, you might want to change your outfit, Mina.”  
“You’re right, I’ve still gotta go to school! And now I’ve gotta get everything ready by myself, too!” Minako got up and sprinted indoors.  
“We’ll just have to hope that she’s right,” Luna said. “If this doesn’t work either, then what can we do…?”  
“We should try to research that airship,” Artemis responded, “no matter what the result of this is. Who was that woman really…?”  
“Mhm,” Luna nodded, looking up at the zeppelin.  
A few minutes passed while the sun rose and the cats watched the plant pot, before Minako returned in her school uniform.  
“I’m back,” Minako greeted, though her happy expression quickly faded. “Still nothing…?”  
“Looks like it’s no good,” Artemis said, shaking his head. “We’ll have to think of something else, anything else.”  
“I really thought that would work… Was it just an empty dream after all,” Minako commented, as the morning sun rounded a corner, blinding her for a moment before she could turn away.  
“We should probably get the pot back to normal,” Artemis said.  
“But I don’t want to just give up already… also, I need to figure out breakfast first! At this rate I’m gonna faint! Artemis, could you help me out?”  
“Mina… oh, I guess it can’t be helped.” Artemis began following Minako back into the house.  
“Wait,” Luna shouted, “look! The sun wasn’t directly hitting the pot before, but now it is, and look!”  
“What,” Artemis reacted, turning around. Above the plant pot, he could just barely make out a displacement of light, as if a ghost was floating there.  
“It is working,” Minako celebrated, seeing the same thing. “Something’s slowly appearing… and it has a ponytail just like Mako _-chan_ ’s!”  
“Even if she doesn’t return to normal from this, she might be able to tell us something that can help us,” Luna commented. “It would be best if she did fully recover, though!”

Minako sat back down on the doorstep and watched Makoto slowly fade into existence. Several minutes passed by as more and more of her body appeared, from the top down, and she became more and more opaque. After almost half an hour, Makoto’s body looked as solid and complete as it could ever be, though Minako was starting to doze off and failed to notice. A few more moments later, Makoto opened her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first planned out this story in my head, I didn’t notice how big of a role I was giving Minako! All I was thinking was “I’m gonna have all but one of them vanish mysteriously, and then the last girl standing will run around trying to figure out what happened”. Originally, I wanted to make Makoto that last person, but I gave it some thought and decided that Minako would be a better choice. Speaking of which, I know Sailor V doesn’t get read as much as Sailor Moon does, but I recommend it, especially if you’re looking for more solo Minako adventures.
> 
> At this point it’s probably worth mentioning continuity. I didn’t try very hard to make Mindful of Love fit perfectly into the actual canon, as I just want this thing to be a fun side-story, like something you could see in a non-canon movie. From the line “Venus Star Power”, you might have already been able to tell “when” this story takes place, but to be clear, it happens between the second arc and the third arc. It also mainly follows the continuity of the old 90s Sailor Moon anime, though some stuff is inspired by the manga too. As for where Chibiusa is… well, she’s at home back in the future and doesn’t appear in this story. Sorry!


	3. Chapter 3

### Act 3: Recovery - Jupiter

After a long, long process of rematerialising, Makoto finally opened her eyes, finding herself looking directly at the sun. Quickly looking down, she found herself standing with one foot in a plant pot.  
“What in the,” Makoto reacted. “…What’s going on?”  
“Mako _-chan_ ,” Minako shouted as she sprung awake. “You’re really back!!”  
Makoto stood still in confusion as Minako gave her a quick hug.  
“Minako _-chan_ …? Wait, why am I at your house? Standing in a pot, of all things? I sat down in my apartment just a minute ago… didn’t I?”  
“We’re glad to have you back,” Artemis said. “A lot of things have happened.”  
“That doesn’t sound good,” Makoto commented, stepping out of the plant pot. “How long have I been gone?”  
“It’s just been one night,” Minako replied. “Could be worse.”  
“A whole night has passed? …Why is it so quiet here,” Makoto asked while instinctively putting the displaced flowers back into the pot. “Where’s everybody else?”  
“The same thing that happened to you happened to almost everyone in the whole city,” Luna explained. “We’re not sure how or why yet. Ami _-chan_ , Rei _-chan_ , Usagi _-chan_ and Mamoru _-san_ are all gone, too.”  
“What about you, Minako _-chan_ ,” Makoto asked. “Did Luna and Artemis save you, or were you lucky?”  
“Lucky, I guess,” Minako said, “but I don’t know if I’m happy about spending all my luck on something like this.”  
“Everyone who’s missing has been turned into a crystal and is being stored in that airship,” Luna continued, looking up at the sky. “We managed to infiltrate the zeppelin with Sailor Venus’ skills, but the only crystal we were able to retrieve was yours.”  
“I was so close to getting Rei _-chan_ ’s crystal, too,” Minako sighed.  
“There was a woman in the airship who ejected us with a powerful attack when she discovered us,” Artemis added. “Luna and I will do as much research as we can and try to figure out who she might be.”  
“So we need to get back on board the airship, right? We’ll do much better when there’s two of us,” Makoto said.  
“That would be ideal if it was possible,” Artemis replied, “but after last night’s infiltration, the zeppelin has moved and is floating higher in the sky. It might be too far away to reach now.”  
“If we can’t get up to it, we should just bring it down to us,” Makoto suggested. “My lightning should have no trouble striking it.”  
“Before we try that, though,” Minako cut in. “Mako _-chan_ , could you maybe help me make breakfast?”  
“Huh? …Now that you’re mentioning food… I never got around to making dinner yesterday! I’m actually starving! Okay, let’s see what you have,” Makoto nodded.  
“Yay,” Minako celebrated. “Follow me!”

“Thanks for the meal,” Minako exclaimed a short while later. “I know we all say it all the time, but Mako _-chan_ , you’re so good at cooking!”  
“It’s not like I’m not still glad to hear it,” Makoto smiled. “You’re sure that it’s fine that I used all those ingredients, though?”  
“Mama and Papa will understand,” Minako responded. “Don’t worry about it.”  
“Makoto _-chan_ , Mina, you should come look at this,” Artemis shouted from the living room.  
“It’s worse than we thought,” Luna said as the girls arrived, seeing the cats watching the news on TV.  
“Due to the mass disappearances,” the male news anchor explained, “a national state of emergency has been declared.”  
“What started as a chain of missing persons reports in Tokyo last night has now exploded in scale,” the female news anchor continued, “in what can only be explained as a supernatural event. The phenomenon seems to be spreading quickly, and at the moment, all of southeastern Japan is affected.”  
“Unfortunately, we don’t have very much information to share. You’re currently looking at every remaining employee here at the station,” the male anchor admitted.  
“Now for a special Sailor Watch,” the female anchor said, referring to a news segment. “Sailor Warrior activity has been low, in spite of the catastrophe we’re seeing unfold. It is possible that they have been affected by the disappearances as much as we have. However, one attentive viewer has reported that he saw Sailor Venus running through Tokyo last night. He explained to us that she seemed to be running towards a battle and that she was operating on her own.”  
“Sheesh, no credit at all,” Luna commented. “Artemis and I were there too, you know!”  
“If there’s an official national emergency going on, then at least we don’t have to worry about school,” Makoto commented. “We can focus fully on bringing everyone back!”  
“Luna, let’s head to the base and begin our research,” Artemis said.  
“Okay,” Luna replied, and the two cats headed out.  
“Minako _-chan_ , let’s go,” Makoto exclaimed. “Jupiter Star Power, Make Up!”  
“Right, Mako _-chan_! Venus Star Power, Make Up!”  
Makoto and Minako held their transformation rods high in the air as they shouted, and a mystical light encased them both as they transformed. Soon after, the light faded away to reveal Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus.

Jupiter and Venus began making their way towards the airship on foot, running down the Tokyo streets and heading towards the bay. The zeppelin was hovering above the water, staying a decent distance away from any tall structures. After looking around, the two Sailor Warriors settled on running out on the newly constructed Rainbow Bridge, nimbly making their way up one of the suspension bridge’s tall support towers. The airship still floated far above them, looking close to unreachable.  
“I’m not sure we’ll be able to bridge the gap here,” Sailor Venus commented. “Our attacks don’t have infinite reach, so they might be ineffective at this distance…”  
“We won’t know that until we try,” Sailor Jupiter said. “Even then, we’ll figure something out.”  
“Let me try first, I know a good way to check if it’s too far. Venus Love-Me Chain!”  
Minako’s attack shot into the air, climbing as if the laws of physics were mere suggestions. However, after several seconds of extending itself and closing in on the airship, the chain reached its limit, only making it two thirds of the way. The chain began falling towards the sea, though Minako dispelled it before it could collide with anything.  
“Yeah, that’s a bit further away than I was hoping,” Venus said. “Wanna give it a try too, or should we think of something else?”  
“I have to at least make an attempt,” Jupiter responded. “Sparkling Wide Pressure!”  
Makoto threw her ball of electricity at the airship with all her strength, pitching it as if it were a baseball. The attack still spent several seconds on reaching the zeppelin, however, and every moment, more and more power dissipated. When the Sparkling Wide Pressure finally made contact with the airship, it harmlessly fell apart against the bottom of the gondola.

“Crap, no good,” Makoto commented. “If I could get it to go faster and strike sooner, it would be a lot more effective…”  
“Hmm,” Minako reacted. “If only we had Sailor Mercury here too, she’d figure something out right away…”  
“Your attack didn’t reach the airship, but mine did,” Sailor Jupiter summarised. “My attack lost almost all of its power, though… but yours didn’t, right? Maybe there’s a way we could combine the two!”  
“Sounds good, but how,” Sailor Venus asked. “I can’t think of anything.”  
“The Sparkling Wide Pressure ball could move much faster if it wasn’t traveling through air. Electricity moves better through proper conductors,” Jupiter said.  
“I… might have slept through that class,” Venus responded. “If I’ve even had one. I’m not sure. I think I get it, though, it’s the idea behind lightning rods, right?”  
“Yeah. Metallic things tend to be pretty good at conducting. It is a bit of a guess, but maybe your chain attack could be the same.”  
“Okay, we’ll try it. I’ll go first, then you just focus on timing your attack right… hey, it won’t zap me, will it?”  
“I’ll try my best to avoid it, at least!”  
“Uh oh. Never mind, here goes! Venus Love-Me Chain!”

The mystical golden chain made its way up into the air once again, with Venus and Jupiter both staring intensely at it to keep track of its progress. After a few seconds, it looked like it was approaching the point of failure on the previous attempt, and in a swift move, Jupiter grabbed onto the chain right by Venus’ hand.  
“Sparkling Wide Pressure!”  
Instantly, bright sparks of electricity began crawling up the Venus Love-Me Chain, filling the air with crackling noises. In the blink of an eye, the Sparkling Wide Pressure orb emerged from the far end of the chain, and with the speed it retained, it collided with the airship soon after. The ball exploded into a brilliant flash of light, and massive sparks began jumping around the surface of the airship. The zeppelin began to shake as if it was experiencing turbulence, and it lost several meters of altitude. Then, a black mist began enveloping the airship, and it soon stabilised again. As the mist became an opaque cloud, it seemed to launch dozens of unidentifiable black blobs in all directions.  
“Um,” Sailor Venus commented, “okay…”  
“Looks like the strategy worked,” Sailor Jupiter said, “but whoever’s in the airship has some tricks up their sleeve.”  
“I’m worried about that cloud… We should probably check on what it just spat out.”

Venus and Jupiter climbed down and left the Rainbow Bridge behind, heading back into the city. Streaks of black smoke could be seen in the sky above them, and the two picked one at random to follow. While they ran, Venus’ communicator was activated.  
“Sailor Venus, can you hear me,” Artemis asked from the other side of the connection.  
“I can,” Venus replied. “What’s up?”  
“We just finished overpowering a kind of energy field that was preventing some of our equipment, including the communicators, from working,” Artemis explained.  
“Hey, that’s great! Though I’m not sure it’s gonna give us much of an advantage right now,” Minako commented. “We already know where everyone else is.”  
“We can start analysing things more thoroughly from here now,” Luna said, “and maybe find ways to get past the airship’s defences.”  
“Speaking of which, our work with the energy field allowed us to come to a definite conclusion as to who we’re dealing with,” Artemis added.  
“Yeah,” Makoto asked. “Who’s our enemy?”

“Out in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,” Artemis explained, “a mythical civilisation called the Crystal Constellation is said to exist. It’s a very secluded society, as they live within the scattered asteroids, and even data on them from the era of the Silver Millennium is slim and considered to be just myth. However, what little information we have from those myths does match up with both the airship and the woman within it.”  
“The bracelets Sailor Venus spotted match a description of what upper-class ladies living in asteroids near Ceres would wear,” Luna continued. “In the Crystal Constellation, how powerful you are defines whether you go to the top or the bottom of society, which means that our mystery woman is considered one of the strongest people in their entire civilisation.”  
“The airship she flies also matches an old description from the Silver Millennium,” Artemis took over, “specifically the description of the royal flagship itself. It’s hard for us to say if the ship is being flown by its rightful owner, but it could be.”  
“What if it is,” Venus asked. “Do we have to watch out for something?”  
“Yes,” Luna replied. “If the lady in the airship actually owns it, then she is Princess Parle, who’s described in the Silver Millennium records.”  
“What,” Minako reacted. “I know it was dark, but she definitely didn’t look that old!”  
“The inhabitants of the Crystal Constellation live for several thousand years,” Artemis said. “Even longer than inhabitants of the Silver Millennium. Princess Parle was described as very young in relative terms back then.”  
“Did it say anything about her powers,” Makoto asked. “Any practical info we can use?”  
“Your chances of defeating her, just the two of you on your own, are a million to none,” Luna answered. “She’ll turn you inside out! Save Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars first! Once all five of you are together, then we can start hatching a plan to beat her, but not before. Don’t attack her!”  
“But we have to get back onto her airship to rescue everyone, don’t we,” Jupiter reacted. “We can’t do one without the other!”  
“Artemis, Luna, we’ll think of something after we’ve checked out these streaks of smoke,” Venus said. “Talk to you later.”

After a bit of running, Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter spotted a streak of smoke in the air right above them, seeing its trajectory clearly curve down towards the ground. A few city blocks away, they found its landing spot. Stuck in the middle of the street was a small crystal. Minako recognised the shape of the crystal immediately, but its colour was nothing like what she had seen or predicted. The crystal had a dark violet hue, and it gave off black smoke, further coating it in darkness. Makoto approached the dark crystal to take a closer look, but just as she got close, the crystal suddenly sprung to life, starting to bounce around like a fish on land and giving off far more smoke. The smoke grew denser and denser, and soon, it started to solidify, forming a vaguely humanoid dark figure. The figure tossed and turned on the ground for a moment, before it got on its feet and turned to look at the two Sailor Warriors. The dark violet crystal was embedded in its forehead, right above two vacant, pure yellow eyes. The figure was mostly featureless, lacking things such as hair, ears and a mouth.

“It’s some kind of monster,” Sailor Jupiter commented. “That figures.”  
The figure seemed to glare at her as if it felt insulted.  
“The question is how strong it is,” Sailor Venus said. “Let’s find out!”  
“Right,” Jupiter nodded, before jumping backwards a bit and pivoting into a pose. “I am the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and courage, Sailor Jupiter! I’ll fill you with so much regret it’ll shock you!”  
“And,” Venus declared, joining in with her own pose, “I’m the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and beauty, Sailor Venus! Allow me to punish you in the name of love!”  
The monster stared at the girls, seemingly confused.  
“I’ll go first,” Jupiter said, stepping forward. “Shout if you spot something!”  
“Alright,” Venus nodded. “Go for it!”  
Sailor Jupiter charged at the dark figure, attacking with a simple punch. The monster, seemingly unable to process what was happening, took the punch without defending itself. The blow did not have much of an effect on it, however, as its body simply bounced back, as if it was made of rubber.  
“What the,” Makoto reacted.  
“Watch out for its fingers,” Minako shouted. “They’re more like claws!”  
Hearing Venus’ advice, Jupiter jumped away just in time to dodge a swipe from the monster.  
“Tch,” Makoto commented, “it’s a weak monster, but its body makes it tough to deal with.”  
“I have an idea,” Minako said. “Get your hands on the crystal in its head and yank it out! It should be its power source!”  
“Gotcha.”  
Sailor Jupiter went back on the offensive. The monster was now frantically swiping at her, but its moves were sloppy and predictable, and she was easily able to avoid them. Jupiter slid her fingers under the crystal’s spikes and quickly pulled with all of her strength, ripping it out of the figure’s forehead. The moment the figure lost its crystal, it fell to the ground and disintegrated back into smoke. Meanwhile, the crystal in Jupiter’s hand was no longer releasing smoke, and its colour quickly changed from a dark violet to a pale peach colour.

“Look at that,” Sailor Jupiter said. “The crystal changed.”  
“It’s got a colour more like what I expected to see now,” Sailor Venus commented. “This crystal belongs to a normal person. I can’t begin to guess who, so I’m not sure what to do with it…”  
“There’s gonna be hundreds of these walking around in a few minutes,” Jupiter noted. “I hope we can find Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury’s crystals soon…”  
“The Mars crystal is red like fire,” Venus informed. “The Mercury crystal will probably be blue like water, though I didn’t see that one. Sailor Moon’s crystal will most likely look like the Legendary Silver Crystal. I wonder if Tuxedo Mask will have a special colour too… but I’m not sure on that one.”  
“Okay,” Jupiter nodded. “Let’s split up and defeat monsters while we search.”  
“Sounds like a plan. Leave that crystal you saved here for now, we’ll find out what we can do with it later.”  
Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter began running in two separate directions, dealing with several crystal monsters just like the first one they discovered.

From within the darkness of her airship, further darkened by the smoke that now enveloped it, the mysterious woman looked out over Tokyo.  
“My plan keeps getting impeded,” the woman commented. “First, that girl and her cats sneak in here, then the same girl and another girl attack the ship directly…”  
The woman brought forth two crystals, one blue one and one red one, and looked at them.  
“Whoever these belong to have more powerful souls than the rest of the humans. There’s something special about them… They should be able to keep those two girls more than busy.”  
The lady seemed to concentrate on the crystals, and her face grew strained.  
“Spirit Crystal Power! Break Down!!”  
Immediately, smoke began oozing from the crystals, the smoke matching the crystals’ colour. The woman released the crystals from their grip, and they began flying up into the darkness above her, appearing in the outside sky a few seconds later and shooting across the city like meteorites.  
“Don’t worry, Garnets, this won’t take long…”

Sailor Venus finished reclaiming a crystal from the forehead of a monster when she spotted another streak of smoke fly by right above her. This time, however, the smoke was not black, but had an azure hue instead. Curious and concerned all at once, she chased down the smoke and its source, finding it on the street next to Game Center Crown. Venus saw a cyan crystal oozing with azure smoke, far more smoke than the other monsters had been created with. As expected, the smoke began collecting and solidifying, but this time, it took on a much more definitive shape. Sailor Venus watched as the smoke grew into an azure monster with a clear feminine figure. Silver ribbons ran across the monster’s chest and back in the shape of a diagonal cross, and a fleshy equivalent to hair grew out on its head, forming a bob cut. The cyan crystal was placed on its forehead just as with all the other monsters, though it was slightly obscured by the hair.

“Sheesh, it’s like I’m looking at a corrupted version of Sailor Mercury,” Sailor Venus commented.  
“Suisui,” the monster said, seemingly shouting, or perhaps howling. “Suisuisuiii!”  
“It even speaks with her exact voice,” Venus said, recoiling. “What did it say? Suisui…?”  
“Suisuiii suisuisuiii!!” The monster clapped its hands together, and a storm of bubbles appeared around them.  
“It has corrupted versions of Sailor Mercury’s powers, too,” Venus reacted, taking a step back.  
“Suiiisuiii!” The creature launched the bubbles at Sailor Venus, sending them all at her at once.  
“Crescent Beam Shower,” Venus yelled, using her spread shot attack to hit all the bubbles and neutralise them. During the mess of all the bubbles bursting, she retreated from the battlefield, hiding on a nearby rooftop.

Elsewhere, Sailor Jupiter encountered a red crystal with vermillion smoke shooting out of it.  
“This is Sailor Mars’ crystal, I bet,” Jupiter commented to herself. “Maybe this is a lucky break!”  
The smoke began taking shape, becoming a feminine vermillion figure. Two silver ribbons ran horizontally around its chest and back. On its head, fleshy, long straight hair with bangs grew out.  
“Spitting image,” Sailor Jupiter muttered. “Like Sailor Mars herself, just made of smoke…”  
“Honohono,” the monster shouted. “Honohonohonooo!!” In a flare, the figure’s body caught fire.  
“What the,” Jupiter reacted. “It sounds just like her… How am I gonna grab the crystal if it’s just gonna coat itself in flames!?”  
Attempting to attack, Sailor Jupiter threw a Sparkling Wide Pressure at the monster. Before the ball of lightning could get far, however, the creature fired a stream of flames from its palm and stopped it in its tracks. Out of ideas, Jupiter retreated to a rooftop.

“Hey, Mako- _chan_ ,” Sailor Venus said to her communicator. “Are you there?”  
“I hear you, Minako- _chan_ ,” Sailor Jupiter replied. “I’ve got some trouble here.”  
“Me too,” Minako said. “Ami- _chan_ ’s crystal has been turned into a monster!”  
“Over here it’s Rei- _chan_ ’s crystal,” Makoto informed. “The monster sounds just like her, and looks a bit like her, too. And it’s got fire powers. It keeps saying Honohono…”  
“This one says Suisui in Ami- _chan_ ’s voice… Anyway, listen,” Minako responded, “we need to work together if we’re gonna beat these two. I’m by the arcade, are you able to get here?”  
“I’m not happy about just leaving Honohono over here behind,” Makoto commented, “but okay, we’d have to leave one of them anyway. I’m on my way.”

A little while later, Sailor Venus could see Sailor Jupiter come running towards Game Center Crown, and she jumped down from her hiding place to join her. The two joined up a few feet away from the monster made from Ami’s crystal.  
“This is the Suisui monster, huh,” Jupiter asked. “Yeah, this definitely looks like a corruption of Sailor Mercury…”  
“And your Honohono creature looked like a fake Sailor Mars,” Venus asked back, “wasn’t that what you said?”  
“Yeah. It has pretty elaborate fire powers, too.”  
“In that case, Suisui can have plenty of water powers. It already used a bubble attack on me earlier. Keep an eye out.”  
The two Sailor Warriors nodded to each other and prepared to fight the azure monster. Suisui only seemed to acknowledge their existence once they started moving towards it, but when it did, it turned towards them, pivoting into a kind of no-guard pose. Jupiter began running towards the monster, trying to make it react. Once she got close enough, Suisui swiped at her, but she immediately jumped to the side, before kicking at its arm. To her surprise, however, her leg sank into Suisui’s arm as if it was made of a thick liquid. Before she could react, Suisui used its other arm to knock Jupiter out of itself and down to the ground.

“Okay, that happened,” Sailor Jupiter muttered as she got up and moved a few steps back. “Looks like direct attacks aren’t going to do much.”  
“Let me try,” Sailor Venus said. “If we can’t make physical contact, then how about this? Venus Love-Me Chain!”  
The golden chain burst forth around Venus’ body, and she quickly launched it towards Suisui. The chain coiled itself around the monster’s upper torso and shoulders, and Sailor Venus pulled on the chain, tightening its grip.  
“Suiii,” the azure creature cried out, “suisuisuiii!”  
“It’s working,” Sailor Jupiter commented. “Hold it down like that while I grab the crystal-”  
“Suiiisuiii!!”  
As it shouted, the monster’s upper body changed texture, and the Venus Love-Me Chain sank into it as if it was water. Jupiter cancelled her approach, before sighing. Then, Suisui grabbed the chain with its arms and began pulling, yanking Sailor Venus towards itself. Venus let out a surprised yelp, before hurriedly cancelling her attack, ending up landing face down on the ground. Jupiter ran over to her and helped her get back up.

“This isn’t going too well,” Sailor Venus commented. “We’ve gotta think of something. If only Sailor Mercury was with us and not trapped in that crystal…”  
“It keeps absorbing our attacks by turning its body into water,” Sailor Jupiter noted. “There’s no way to land a hit on it from the outside… But what if we managed to attack it from the inside?”  
“How are we gonna do that,” Venus asked. “Dive in and rip our way out? I don’t think that’d work.”  
“I have an idea,” Jupiter responded. “My Sparkling Wide Pressure can get absorbed into Suisui’s body and then explode!”  
“Oh! Yeah, let’s give it a try!” Sailor Venus took a step back, giving Sailor Jupiter some room to work.  
“Sparkling Wide Pressure!!”  
The orb of electricity flew towards Suisui, who simply stared at it. The monster made no attempt to block or evade the ball, and when it collided with it, it simply sank into its chest, where it lost all its momentum.  
“Sui…”  
“Um,” Sailor Jupiter said, “it’s not exploding. Suisui’s body doesn’t provide enough resistance to set it off… So much for that, I guess.”  
“I know what will,” Sailor Venus remarked, smiling. “This should do! Crescent Beam!”  
Venus pointed her right index finger forward and fired off a golden beam of energy. The beam flew right into Suisui’s watery body, but when it crashed into the stuck Sparkling Wide Pressure, it caused it to be set off. The ball of electricity detonated with a flash of light and sparks, shattering Suisui’s body into dozens of semi-solid pieces that splattered over the road.  
“Good thinking,” Jupiter celebrated.  
“Su… i… sui,” the monster’s head bleated. The other pieces of its body were losing viscosity, starting to melt into puddles of water that combined with each other.  
“It’s trying to reform,” Venus shouted. “We’ve got to grab the crystal now!”  
“What!?”  
Sailor Jupiter began sprinting over to Suisui’s head, while more and more puddles began creeping together and combining around her. Jupiter placed her boot on the monster’s head in an attempt to hold it back, then slid her fingers under the crystal’s spikes and pulled with all her strength. Before Suisui could change its head’s texture, she managed to rip the crystal out of its forehead.

“Whew,” Sailor Jupiter said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Got it!”  
“Suiiiii…”  
While Jupiter looked at the cyan crystal in her hand, Suisui swiftly dissolved behind her.  
“If we work together like this, I bet we can deal with Honohono as well,” she said. “What do you think?”  
“Maybe we can,” Sailor Venus responded, “but it’s probably smarter to take care of that crystal first. Let’s take a break and focus on bringing Ami- _chan_ back.”  
“Okay, yeah,” Jupiter nodded, “that is smarter. What do we do with it?”  
“Let’s head back to my place,” Venus said. “I’ve got an idea.”  
Venus and Jupiter headed away from the site of the battle, and transformed back into Minako and Makoto before heading into the former’s house.  
“What’s the idea you’ve got,” Makoto asked.  
“Well,” Minako replied, “you have an affinity for plants, and I got you back by doing something plant-related with your crystal. Ami- _chan_ ’s surely got an affinity for water, so if we do something water-related to her crystal, it’ll bring her back for sure!”  
“That makes sense,” Makoto nodded.  
“So I was thinking we’d just put the crystal in the sink and turn on the tap!”  
“Somehow I think Ami- _chan_ wouldn’t appreciate finding herself stuck in a sink a whole lot. Shouldn’t we try the shower instead?”  
“That is probably better, yeah,” Minako admitted with a laugh.  
Minako and Makoto headed to the bathroom, where they placed the cyan crystal in the bathtub. Makoto grabbed the showerhead and held it close to the crystal while Minako turned on the water, and the two began waiting for something to happen. Sure enough, a moment later, they saw a figure fade into existence. This time, the process was far faster than when Makoto was restored, and within a single minute, Ami had fully materialised, standing in the bathtub.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mystery of Ceres… Sailor Ceres is real, you know! If you haven’t read the manga or seen the Sailor Moon Eternal movies, you might not be familiar with her, as she doesn’t appear properly in the 90s anime. She is technically present there too, though… as Cerecere of the Amazoness Quartet. That blew my mind when I read the manga! Those four were actually all Sailor Warriors?! So I referenced a tiny bit of that plot point in the previous chapter. Of course, if you were aware of all this, then you probably already knew that it wasn’t going to be her. (Fun fact, I wrote this note before the Eternal movies even came out. By the time this chapter is released, they will have come out, though.)
> 
> “Sailor Warrior” might not be the most common translation of セーラー戦士 (“seeraa”/sailor senshi), I’m realising. Sailor Warrior, Sailor Soldier, Sailor Guardian… They’re all terms that let you pretty easily understand what they refer to. I’ve gone for “warrior” since it’s a more respectful word, so to speak, than “soldier”, and because “guardian” is a bit of an inaccurate translation of 戦士 (senshi). I hope it doesn’t bother you that I made this choice.


	4. Chapter 4

### Act 4: Retaliation - Mercury

As the restoration process finished, Ami opened her eyes. She quickly noticed that her surroundings had completely changed, and saw Minako and Makoto standing by her, both of them looking away.  
“Um,” she reacted, “Mako- _chan_ , Minako- _chan_ , what’s going on…?”  
“You were turned into a crystal,” Minako said, still looking away.  
“While you were completely butt naked, apparently,” Makoto added.  
“Oh!” Ami blushed as she noticed that Minako was holding a towel towards her. She grabbed the towel, dried herself off, and covered herself up with it. “I was just taking a shower after my swimming session… Wait, how long have I been gone?”  
“About a day,” Minako answered, her and Makoto no longer looking away. “This all started last night.”  
“Please fill me in on what’s happened,” Ami said.

A few minutes later, Ami, Minako and Makoto were all sitting in Minako’s living room, three glasses of juice standing on the table.  
“So Rei- _chan_ is stuck as a crystal inside that Honohono creature? What about Usagi- _chan_ ,” Ami asked, “do you know where she is?”  
“We haven’t seen her crystal at all,” Minako said. “We don’t really even know what it looks like, though we think it’s going to have the same colour and shine as the Legendary Silver Crystal.”  
“I bet it’s close to Mamoru- _san_ ’s crystal,” Makoto added, “but we don’t really know what that one looks like.”  
“That would make sense,” Ami nodded, “the two were going on a date last night, after all. They were probably turned into crystals at the same place and time. The safest assumption is that they’re both stored within the airship.”  
“I hope so,” Minako said. “If the Legendary Silver Crystal is used to create a monster like Suisui and Honohono, it could be so strong that we’d have no way to deal with it.”  
“Let’s go deal with Honohono, get Rei- _chan_ back, and prevent the lady in the airship from using Usagi- _chan_ ’s crystal at all,” Makoto said, standing up.  
“I sort of need my rod first,” Ami commented awkwardly. “My clothes and accessories are all still in the locker at the pool…”  
“Okay, we’ll head there first, and then deal with the monsters,” Minako nodded. “I think I have some spare clothes you can borrow on the way over there. Can’t have you walking around outside in just a towel!”  
“Oh, thank you,” Ami responded.  
Minako lent Ami some of her clothes, giving her an outfit consisting of a white top, a short cyan skirt and a hot pink jacket, along with some white mary jane shoes.  
“You didn’t have to go through the effort of finding me a fashionable outfit,” Ami said, smiling and blushing a little. “I would’ve been fine with something simple too…”  
“Effort? No way,” Minako reacted, “I just couldn’t give you something that didn’t look alright. If you want me to help you find a really good outfit sometime, just call and we’ll go shopping!”  
“I feel a little silly hanging around in my school uniform,” Makoto commented.  
“Me too, honestly,” Minako said. “We need to get going, though.”

Ami, Minako and Makoto left Minako’s house and hurried over to the indoor pool hall. The building was deserted when they got there, along with most of the streets on the way. Ami quickly ran to the locker room, where she found her things exactly where she left them. She packed her clothes in her bag and rushed back out to the others.  
“Not changing out of the outfit just yet,” Minako asked.  
“I figured we didn’t have the time to spare,” Ami replied, holding out her transformation rod. “Let’s get to it. Mercury Star Power! Make Up!”  
Ami vanished within a flash of light as she transformed. A moment later, she emerged as Sailor Mercury.  
“Right,” Minako nodded. “Venus Star Power! Make Up!”  
“Jupiter Star Power,” Makoto joined in, “Make Up!”  
A second later, Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter were on the scene.  
“Luna, Artemis,” Mercury spoke to her communicator, “are you two doing okay?”  
“Sailor Mercury,” Luna and Artemis responded, audibly celebrating. “You’re back! We’re doing fine, but actually, we could really use your help!”  
“Oh? What’s the matter?”  
“We’re running calculations on the energies the airship is radiating,” Artemis said, “but it’s getting really complex.”  
“Sorry to yank you away from the action like this,” Luna said, “but what we’re working on should help deal with everything that’s going on in the city.”  
“What do you guys think,” Mercury asked, looking at Jupiter and Venus.  
“If you can help them prevent more monsters from showing up, then go for it,” Venus replied. “We’ll handle what’s already here.”  
“We’ll delay facing Honohono for as long as we can,” Jupiter added. “Hopefully you’ll be done by the time we have to fight it.”  
“Okay,” Mercury nodded. “Luna, Artemis, I’m on my way.”  
The three Sailor Warriors split up, Sailor Mercury heading towards Game Center Crown while Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter headed off in other directions.

A short minute later, Sailor Mercury arrived at Game Center Crown. While the arcade was open, nobody was inside, not even the owner Motoki. Mercury hurried over to one of the arcade machines and input a sequence of button presses and joystick movements, and once she completed the sequence, the machine moved to the side, revealing a staircase below. Heading down the staircase, she entered a small hidden room housing an advanced computer, where Artemis and Luna were waiting for her.  
“I’m glad you could make it here so fast,” Artemis greeted. “Take a look.”  
Mercury walked over to the computer screens, seeing a live video feed of the airship, along with several images with incomplete analyses.  
“The airship gives off all sorts of strange energies,” Luna explained. “One of them was responsible for disabling most of our equipment, including our communicators.”  
“How did you cancel out that energy,” Sailor Mercury asked.  
“The computer is transmitting the exact opposite energy through the satellite dish on the roof of this building,” Artemis said. “We’re using destructive interference.”  
“Right,” Mercury nodded. “But you haven’t been able to do the same with the rest of the airship’s fields and energies?”  
“Unfortunately not,” Luna replied. “The values we’ve been picking up make no sense, and we think it’s because of that black smoke around the airship. Like you can see on the screen, we have too many unknowns to come to any conclusions.”  
“Let me take a look,” Mercury said, starting to monitor the incoming values. “Maybe I can spot a pattern.”

Outside on the Tokyo streets, Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter were running around, tracking down smoke monsters and liberating the crystals they were created from. No matter how quickly they worked, however, there always seemed to be a dozen more creatures around the corner, and moreover, they could still see streaks of smoke fly over them, new monsters spawning in the city at every moment. After several minutes, the two Sailor Warriors were starting to get winded, and they both decided to take a step back, jumping up to some rooftops. From there, they quickly spotted each other and joined back up.  
“We can’t keep doing this forever,” Sailor Venus said. “I feel like we’re taking one step in the hand, two steps in the bush…”  
“Um,” Sailor Jupiter reacted, “I think you mean one step forward, two steps back.”  
“Yeah, that.”  
“You’re right, though. I keep seeing more smoke being shot out from the airship… We’re getting nowhere fast!”  
“And there’s still Honohono, too… If we focus on defeating it, we can free Sailor Mars. None of the other monsters are like Suisui and Honohono, so I say we try to do that first.”  
“We’ll rescue Sailor Mars, and Sailor Mercury will stop any more monsters from appearing in the city,” Jupiter summarised. “Sounds like a plan. Follow me, it’s probably still where I ran into it.”  
Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter began crossing rooftops, heading to Honohono’s location.

“These numbers are all just noise,” Sailor Mercury admitted after several minutes of watching the computer screen. “There’s no way we could figure anything else out from here…”  
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Luna said. “We can start guessing all the variables randomly, but it could take months to get them all right…”  
“Don’t worry, you shouldn’t need to do that. I’ll get closer to the airship and use my equipment to analyse its fields from a different vantage point. At the very least, we can compare the results we get and see if anything changes.”  
“Good idea,” Artemis nodded. “We’re counting on you.”  
Sailor Mercury headed up the stairs and out of the arcade, starting to make her way towards the airship. The zeppelin was now floating over the bay, out of reach from any buildings or bridges. After a few moments of running down streets and climbing up a building, Mercury placed herself on a rooftop that let her see the airship as clearly and closely as possible. She then took out her pocket computer and clicked her earring to bring out her visor goggles. Sailor Mercury began tapping away at her pocket computer, wirelessly connecting to Luna and Artemis’ machine at the arcade and starting to transmit the data her visor picked up.

Elsewhere in the city, Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter were jumping from rooftop to rooftop, travelling to Honohono’s location. Once they got close, they discovered that the vermillion smoke creature had been joined by a group of dark smoke monsters, though none of them seemed to be doing anything.  
“Look,” Sailor Venus commented. “No broken windows, no dented cars, no… anything. What are they all doing down there?”  
“Are they protecting Honohono, maybe,” Sailor Jupiter wondered. “I thought these guys were completely brainless, but maybe there is something going on in their heads after all.”  
“It’s possible that they somehow know that Suisui was defeated. Honohono might be feeling threatened.”  
“We’re gonna have to deal with all its guards before we can attack it directly, then. Alright, I guess we’d better get started.”  
“Right.”  
Venus and Jupiter jumped down onto the street, landing a short distance away from Honohono’s monster group. The smoke creatures all instantly turned to face the two Sailor Warriors, a few of them stepping forward.  
“It doesn’t matter that there’s thirty of you,” Sailor Venus declared. “We’ve got enough experience by now to deal with you all! I’m the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and beauty, Sailor Venus! Allow me to punish you in the name of love!"  
“And I’m the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and courage, Sailor Jupiter! I’ll fill you with so much regret it’ll shock you!”

The smoke creatures all looked on in confusion as Venus and Jupiter went through their catchphrases and poses, but were soon scrambling to attack. Several monsters awkwardly lunged forward, almost tripping each other on the way. Taking advantage of their poor coordination, Jupiter made her move against the creatures, ripping the crystals out of their foreheads. To the side, Venus used her Venus Love-Me Chain attack to achieve the same results, wrapping the chain around the monsters’ crystals and yanking them out. The small army of smoke monsters quickly grew even smaller, and before long, only Honohono and three others remained. With a frustrated look on its face, Honohono once again lit its body on fire. Then, it grabbed the other monsters’ heads one by one, causing them to start burning as well. The dark smoke creatures were seemingly unaffected by the flames that began enveloping them.

“I don’t think I should be grabbing the crystals directly anymore,” Sailor Jupiter said. “You’ve got this, though, right?”  
“No problem,” Sailor Venus smiled. “Venus Love-Me Chain!”  
Sailor Venus launched her chain attack at one of the burning monsters, coiling it around its forehead crystal and pulling. While she did succeed in yanking out the crystal, the heat from the flames were transferred through the chain and to her hand.  
“Ow,” Venus reacted, “hot, hot!”  
“Are you okay,” Jupiter asked.  
“Those flames are no joke!” Venus dusted off her glove, which was smoking slightly. “I’ll be fine, though, I think.”  
“Do you think you can take the other two?”  
“I don’t really want to give myself burns… What if we shatter their bodies like we did with Suisui?”  
“How will that stop them from burning?”  
“It probably won’t, but at least most of the fire will be somewhere else. That should help a bit.”  
“Okay then… Allow me.” Jupiter extended an antenna from her tiara. “Supreme Thunder!”  
Lightning bolts shot forth, guided by Sailor Jupiter’s hands. The bolts of electricity quickly reached the two dark smoke monsters, striking them over and over with overwhelming voltage. The lightning bolts caused the smoke creatures’ bodies to twist and contort, and they quickly shattered into a few large pieces, each piece still burning.  
“You saw where the crystals went, right,” Jupiter asked.  
“I did,” Venus nodded. “Better yet, it looks like the flames got a bit weaker, too, so I should be fine doing this. Venus Love-Me Chain!”  
With skillful chain movements, Sailor Venus pulled out the last two crystals, leaving Honohono as the last smoke creature in the area. After slapping her glove, which was once again smoking a bit, a few times to stop it from catching fire, she and Jupiter turned their attention to the burning vermillion monster, preparing to battle it.

Elsewhere, by the bay, Sailor Mercury continued to observe and analyse the alien airship with her visor and her pocket computer. Unbeknownst to her, however, she was also being observed herself in turn.  
“There’s a new one,” the lady in the airship commented from within the darkness. “She’s dressed like the other two, too. Who are all these uniformed young girls? This one seems to be taking measurements rather than attacking… but oh well, it’s not like it matters.”  
The woman turned her head, looking into the darkness.  
“I’m almost ready, Garnets. Once the moon rises, all my preparations should be complete. You won’t have to wait much longer, I promise…”  
A small mountain of crystals dimly glittered in the darkness behind the lady.

“These numbers are so weird,” Sailor Mercury commented. “It’s like the universe itself gets warped around the airship… Artemis, Luna, are any of my results helpful to you?”  
“I agree that they’re weird,” Artemis responded, “but yes, they are! There’s still not a very clear pattern or an obvious correct answer to our equations, but we’re much closer now.”  
“There’s only a handful of options left,” Luna helped. “It would only take us a few minutes to check them all! There is just one problem, though…”  
“What’s the matter,” Mercury asked.  
“We need to cancel out the airship’s fields from all sides,” Artemis said. “In other words, we need to transmit energy from six sources. Technically we could get away with five, but not any less.”  
“Five transmitters? What could we use,” Mercury wondered.  
“The best option is your communicators,” Luna replied. “We can use them to send soundwaves that will affect the air in the right way… if we guess the remaining variables correctly, that is. However, we’ll need to boost their volume a bit if we want the waves to be strong enough.”  
“Could I use my pocket computer as another source?”  
“As far as I’m aware, there’s no transmitter on that device that could be used for this,” Artemis responded.  
“Sailor Mercury, there’s only one option,” Luna declared. “Go free Sailor Mars! In the meantime, we’ll find a way to boost your communicators’ sound and get you the best places to transmit from.”  
“Right,” Mercury nodded, putting away her visor and computer and starting to head into the city.

Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter were preparing to start battling Honohono, the burning smoke monster seeming frustrated and the Sailor Warriors feeling winded after all the fighting. After a few short moments, Honohono took a step forward.  
“Honooo! Honohonooo!!”  
The flames engulfing the smoke creature flared up, the blazing fire detaching from its body and becoming eight fireballs floating behind its head. Honohono quickly lit itself on fire again, leaving no window of opportunity.  
“Is that a Burning Mandala,” Sailor Jupiter asked.  
“It definitely looks a lot like it,” Sailor Venus replied. “Get ready to dodge!”  
“Honooo!!” With a scream, Honohono launched its fireballs at the Sailor Warriors.  
Venus and Jupiter scrambled as the attack came flying their way. Though their movements were clumsy, they managed to avoid the fireballs, which flew out of control and crashed into anything nearby. Half of them smashed into the road, while one hit a bike rack, one struck a road sign and the remaining two rammed into the side of some buildings. The fires kept burning after impact, and the street was left in a small inferno.  
“This one’s aggressive,” Venus commented as she got on her feet, “that’s for sure. Sheesh, it got hot here all of a sudden…”  
“Maybe we should pull back,” Jupiter said. “It’s not going to be easy to dodge another attack when the whole street’s on fire!”  
“Hono,” the creature murmured, “honohonohono… Honohonooo!”  
The two Sailor Warriors looked at each other in confusion.  
“Honooo,” Honohono yelled. “Honohonohonooo!!”  
The vermillion monster’s flames flared up again, and eight new fireballs started to form behind its head.  
“Eep,” Sailor Venus reacted. Sailor Jupiter raised her arms defensively.  
“Honooo,” Honohono sang as it began launching its attack.  
“Shine Aqua Illusion!”

Venus and Jupiter watched as a blanket of water crashed into Honohono, putting out the fire on its body and shrinking its fireballs down to the size of candle flames. Then, the attack’s user jumped down and landed on the street in front of them.  
“Sailor Mercury,” Sailor Venus celebrated.  
“Just in time,” Sailor Jupiter added.  
“Sorry for making you do all the hard work,” Sailor Mercury replied, turning around and giving her friends a smile. “Would you like me to take it from here?”  
“You’re very welcome to,”Jupiter replied. “Give it what it’s got coming!”  
“Look at this place,” Mercury said, turning to face Honohono again. “It’s in total disarray, and it’s all because of you! I am the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and intelligence, Sailor Mercury! Douse yourself in water and repent!”  
“Hono,” Honohono reacted, seemingly unhappy about hearing another catchphrase. “Hono!” The monster lit itself on fire again.  
“You won’t beat my water with your fire just by making more of it,” Sailor Mercury exclaimed. “Shine Aqua Illusion!”  
Mercury sent another burst of water at Honohono, extinguishing its flames once again.  
“And,” she continued, “Bubble Spray!”  
Sailor Mercury’s second attack filled the street with cold bubbles which popped to create a cool mist, extinguishing the fires on the road and the environment. Honohono lost sight of her within the mist and became confused, lowering its guard. Mercury knew where her target was, however, and walked up to the creature unnoticed. Once she got close enough, she leapt forward, managing to grab Honohono’s crystal. With a quick yank, she pulled the red crystal out of its head. As the mist cleared out, Venus and Jupiter could just barely see Honohono disintegrate behind Mercury.

“Nice one,” Sailor Venus shouted.  
“Thank you,” Sailor Mercury replied bashfully.  
“Let’s get out of here,” Sailor Jupiter said, “and go restore Sailor Mars!”  
“Right,” Venus nodded. “We can go back to my place and figure it out.”  
“Actually, I thought about the process,” Mercury responded, “and I believe I have a better idea. I think that what speeds things up is how similar the process is to what the person was doing when they were turned into a crystal. So we should head to Hikawa Shrine instead.”  
“Oh, and put the crystal in the fire there! Yeah, that makes sense,” Venus responded.  
“Next to the fire, not inside it,” Jupiter corrected. “Other than that, this sounds like a plan to me. Let’s go!”  
The three Sailor Warriors hurried down the street and made their way to Hikawa Shrine. Once they got indoors, they deactivated their transformations and headed to the chamber where Rei lit her fortunetelling fires.

“To start the process, we’ll have to create a bonfire just like Rei- _chan_ ’s,” Ami said. “I think I have an idea on how she sets them up, but there doesn’t seem to be any firewood here.”  
“There’s probably some stocked up outside,” Makoto said. “I’ll go find you some.”  
“Thanks, Mako- _chan_. We probably won’t need very much,” Ami said as Makoto headed out of the room.  
“There’s some cold tea here,” Minako commented. “It was here and already cold when I checked yesterday, too. Should we try making some more?”  
“If the tea was untouched then, I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference now,” Ami reasoned.  
“I guess,” Minako replied.  
A few seconds later, Makoto returned with a load of wood in her arms. The wood was placed next to Ami, who began stacking it in a way that replicated Rei’s stacking. Once the firewood was ready, Minako struck a match to light the fire. The red crystal was placed next to the fire as it got going, and the three girls took a step back and waited. Once all the wood began burning, it only took a few seconds for the crystal to fade away and for Rei to materialise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I understand if this feels like a bit of a “transport” chapter, considering where it starts and ends and since it’s a bit shorter than the previous ones. The plot in Mindful of Love isn’t all that intricate, and I wanted Ami and Rei to get a chapter each, so it ended up like this. Rei’s chapter is coming next, but you probably figured that out already. I hope to make it feel justified that they’re two chapters and not one.
> 
> Did you know? In Japanese, the seven days of the week are named after the Sun, the Moon and the five elements (fire, water, wood, metal, earth). The five innermost planets, not counting Earth itself, are also named after those five elements. Mercury is the water planet, Venus is the metal planet, Mars is the fire planet, Jupiter is the wood planet, and Saturn is the earth planet. This trivia actually helps explain some of the Sailor Warriors’ attacks. Ami/Sailor Mercury’s connection to water isn’t just random! Also, it means that you could look at Saturday as “Saturn Day” (hey, that’s just like in English), Friday as “Venus Day”, Thursday as “Jupiter Day”, Wednesday as “Mercury Day” and Tuesday as “Mars Day”. I’ve made the release schedule of Mindful of Love match that.


	5. Chapter 5

### Act 5: Counteroffensive - Mars

Ami, Minako and Makoto watched as Rei rapidly materialised in front of them, returning in the same sitting position she had been in before turning into a crystal. Then, she jolted awake.  
“What the,” she blurted out. “…Did I doze off in front of the fire?” Rei looked around, quickly spotting the others. “Woah, what are you girls doing here all of a sudden?”  
“Sudden might not be the best word,” Ami said, attempting to start explaining.  
“That reminds me,” Rei interrupted, “I just saw a vision within the fire! I saw the head of a woman with sharp ears and long, dark hair…”  
“Yeah, we know,” Minako replied. “I’ve seen her for real.”  
“Rei- _chan_ , you’ve been gone longer than you think,” Makoto informed. “It’s been almost a full day… probably. We don’t know exactly when you were transformed.”  
“Transformed,” Rei asked.  
“Starting last night,” Ami explained, “almost everyone in Tokyo has been getting transformed into small crystals. Today, it’s spread to all of southeastern Japan. The cause is the airship that appeared in the sky yesterday, and that’s also where all the crystals are being stored.”  
“It’s not the airship itself, but the person piloting it, that’s doing this,” Makoto added.  
“Usagi- _chan_ isn’t here,” Rei noted. “Is she stuck as a crystal on board the airship?”  
“Yes,” Minako answered, “we’re sure of it. And Mamoru- _san_ has to be in there too.”  
“Hang on,” Rei wondered. “Was I the only one out of the four of us who got crystallised?”  
“No, it’s the other way around. I’m the only one of us who didn’t get transformed,” Minako said. “Exactly how isn’t very important, but I managed to get Mako- _chan_ back, then the two of us got Ami- _chan_ back, and now we three got you back!”  
“Ami- _chan_ ’s crystal was being used to power a monster called Suisui,” Makoto added, “and yours powered one called Honohono.”  
“We’re worried about what might happen if Usagi- _chan_ ’s crystal is used to power another monster,” Ami concluded.  
“It could be like the Legendary Silver Crystal aimed right at us,” Rei nodded. “So who is our enemy, exactly?”

“The airship and its owner are from a small hidden society within the asteroid belt that’s called the Crystal Constellation,” Minako replied.  
“Judging from everything we know, it’s reasonable to believe that the lady in the airship is Princess Parle,” Ami added. “She is the strongest person in the Crystal Constellation, as well as its leader.”  
“I didn’t know we had settled on that,” Minako commented. “I guess it makes the most sense, though.”  
“Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly how strong she is,” Makoto said, “or what abilities she has.”  
“I guess we’ll just have to find out when we face her,” Rei responded. “Okay, what do we do?”  
“Artemis, Luna and I have made a plan,” Ami replied. “Once they’ve prepared everything on their end, they’ll notify us.”  
A few minutes passed with the four girls sitting around and waiting, before the cats contacted them through their communicators.

“Everything is ready on our end,” Luna said. “Did you manage to rescue Rei- _chan_?”  
“I’m here,” Rei replied.  
“Super! Okay, here’s what you need to do,” Luna began. “We’ve placed megaphones and markers on four rooftops spread around the airship. Go to your marker and place your communicator next to the megaphone. Once you’ve all done that, come meet us at Game Center Crown.”  
“The markers are blue for Sailor Mercury, red for Sailor Mars, green for Sailor Jupiter and yellow for Sailor Venus,” Artemis continued. “We need to know where each communicator is, since we’re going to send unique signals through each one, so we had to make it specific.”  
“Hang on,” Minako said, “where did you get megaphones from?”  
“Don’t worry about it,” Luna answered, though this just made Minako suspicious.  
“Anyway, let’s get going,” Rei declared. “I need to stretch my legs! Mars Star Power, Make Up!”  
“I’m ready to head back out,” Makoto nodded. “Jupiter Star Power! Make Up!”  
“Me too,” Ami said. “Mercury Star Power, Make Up!”  
“Alright,” Minako smiled. “Venus Star Power! Make Up!”  
The fire chamber at Hikawa Shrine became filled with a dazzling light as the four girls assumed their Sailor Warrior transformations.

The four Sailor Warriors hurried out of the shrine and began heading towards the bay area. Once they reached the water, they climbed up on a rooftop and began scouting for the markers Artemis and Luna placed. Sailor Venus quickly noticed that her yellow marker was the furthest away, and she made a quick comment on how Artemis was probably trying to be funny. At the same time, in the headquarters below Game Center Crown, Artemis suddenly sneezed. Nevertheless, the four girls spread out and made their way to the rooftops their markers were placed on. The markers themselves were large ribbons, and close to each of them was one carefully positioned megaphone. The Sailor Warriors placed their communicators right next to the megaphones and made sure everything was activated, before heading to Game Center Crown. When the girls converged outside the arcade, they found Luna waiting for them, and they were quickly led to the secret base hidden underneath the building.

“Are we all ready to go,” Artemis asked as Luna and the Sailor Warriors came walking down the staircase.  
“Everything went fine on our end,” Sailor Venus replied.  
“Let’s not waste any more time,” Luna said, jumping up to the computer’s input board. “We’ll use the intel Sailor Mercury gathered and send specific frequency soundwaves through your communicators. It might take us a few tries, but it’ll only take a minute.”  
Luna and Artemis both started punching in numbers.  
“…What’s going to happen once you get it right,” Sailor Mars asked.  
“The signals we send will destroy the energies the airship is sending out,” Sailor Mercury explained. “If we get it right, the zeppelin will become isolated and unable to affect the planet anymore.”  
“Ugh,” Artemis commented. “Hey, Sailor Venus, could you help Luna and me with the ear protection we put over to the side there?”  
“Ear protection? I don’t hear anything,” Sailor Venus replied.  
“Cats can pick up on really, really high-pitched sounds,” Sailor Mercury said.  
“Oh. Alright, I’ll get them.” Venus walked over and grabbed some earmuffs, gingerly placing them on Luna and Artemis’ ears.  
“Aw, that’s adorable,” Sailor Jupiter commented with a grin.  
“Look,” Sailor Mars said. “Something’s happening to the airship!”  
The Sailor Warriors watched the computer screen as it showed the cats’ signals start to affect the zeppelin. At first, it seemed like ripples flowed through the black mist covering the airship, but soon, the haze started to dissipate completely, and the airship’s dark aura vanished. The streaks of smoke that contained crystals turned into monsters stopped flying from the zeppelin, leaving it floating completely harmlessly above the bay.

“Huh, cool,” Sailor Jupiter commented, looking at the view of the airship. “Looks like it’s practically a sitting duck now.”  
“Princess Parle shouldn’t be able to do anything more to the planet now,” Sailor Mercury said. “Not unless she has some completely different additional abilities, that is.”  
“What about all the monsters that are already in the city,” Sailor Mars asked. “Were they dealt with too?”  
“I feel like they shouldn’t be,” Sailor Venus commented. “I mean, once the cat’s out of the bag…”  
“That’s not how you use that phrase,” Jupiter said, “but I agree with what you’re trying to say. They’re most likely still out there.”  
“If the airship is harmless now, we should probably go deal with them first, right,” Mars suggested. “Or do they not cause any problems?”  
“They’ve caused plenty of property damage from what I’ve seen,” Mercury responded. “I also think we should take care of them, since we have the time.”  
“Me too,” Jupiter nodded.  
“Looks like it’s unanimous,” Venus commented. “Okay, let’s spread out and clean the city up! We’ll meet here again afterwards. Oh, since you weren’t here before…” Venus turned to face Mars and used her hands to illustrate her words. “You beat the smoke monsters by grabbing the crystals on their foreheads and yanking them out like this.”  
“Gotcha,” Mars nodded.

Without informing the cats, the four Sailor Warriors headed out of the arcade and spread out across the city. It took Luna and Artemis a while to notice, and when they did, they shared an awkward look. Hundreds of smoke creatures still existed in the Tokyo bay area, though the Sailor Warriors did not find a single one when they moved further than roughly a kilometer away from the airship’s location. The four girls began following the trails of broken windows and other small property damage to find the smoke monsters, defeating them without much effort. Sailor Jupiter found one in a cake shop, where the creature had smashed several shelves and seemingly just stepped on the cakes and pastries. Sailor Mercury ran into two in a jewellery store, and though they had actively tried, the creatures had failed to break the store’s reinforced glass. Sailor Venus encountered a strangely coloured smoke monster in a cosmetic boutique, though she quickly realised that it had just managed to coat itself with all kinds of make-up. Sailor Mars fought her first smoke monster by the fountain in the park, but thanks to Venus’ instructions, she defeated it without much trouble. The encounters with the creatures continued for many minutes, the process getting slower and slower as fewer and fewer of them were left. When the Sailor Warriors all felt confident that none were left, and they all met up back at Game Center Crown, the sun was starting to set.

“We’re back,” Sailor Venus said as she lifted the earmuffs off Artemis’ head.  
“Agh,” Artemis jumped, not having seen the Sailor Warriors coming. In response, Venus giggled.  
“We’ve taken care of all the smoke monsters in the city,” Sailor Jupiter said, while Sailor Mercury helped Luna with her earmuffs. “Nothing left to do now except to attack the airship.”  
“We’re still broadcasting these awful digital noises, you know,” Luna commented. “Anyway, I suppose we need some kind of plan.”  
“First we need to get onto the airship,” Sailor Venus said, “or get it down to us. We can all try to attack it together.”  
“We can pool our power and use the Sailor Planet Attack,” Sailor Mars suggested. “Even if we don’t have Sailor Moon with us, the four of us should be able to blast the airship out of the sky with it.”  
“Once we get into the airship,” Sailor Mercury took over, “it’d be best to search for Usagi- _chan_ ’s crystal first, rather than Princess Parle, in case she isn’t aware of its existence. If we can grab it before she can use it, that’ll give us a huge advantage.”  
“If we find it, we’ll retreat and restore Usagi- _chan_ before going back in,” Sailor Jupiter added. “If we don’t, we’ll just have to fight.”  
“We need as many eyes as possible, so you’re coming along too,” Venus said, looking at the cats.  
“W-We have to go back in there,” Artemis reacted.  
“I-I suppose you make a good point,” Luna mumbled.  
“Hey, by the way,” Mars said, “just in case she’s not aware, let’s try to not let Princess Parle know that her powers are being cancelled out and only work inside her airship.”  
“Yeah, good idea,” Jupiter nodded. “Don’t give away any secrets!”  
“We’re all ready to go, then, right,” Venus asked.  
“Yes, as ready as we can get,” Mercury replied, picking up Luna and placing her earmuffs back over her ears.  
“Okay,” Venus declared as she grabbed Artemis and quickly put his earmuffs back on his head. “Let’s go!”  
“Right,” the other three girls replied in unison.

The Sailor Warriors, with the cats in tow, ran out of the arcade and hurried toward the bay area. Sailor Venus led the way, taking everyone to the Rainbow Bridge, where she and Sailor Jupiter had attempted to attack the airship earlier in the day. The four girls all climbed up on one of the support towers, before letting Luna and Artemis down. Then, they all got in formation and held their arms out, aiming their hands at the airship. In unison, they yelled Sailor Planet Attack, and from their bodies, a large wave of light energy burst forth. The energy beam crashed into the airship, creating a blinding explosion. The zeppelin’s balloon was punctured with several large holes, and it began flying out of control, quickly losing altitude. The airship crash-landed on an industrial plot in the bay, and the Sailor Warriors grabbed the cats and hurried over to the crash site.

“Okay,” Sailor Venus said. “Once we get inside, be as quiet as you can. I’ll lead the way along with Artemis and Luna. If we see Parle, hide yourselves as well as possible.”  
“And then we can counterattack with an ambush,” Sailor Mars guessed.  
“Yeah,” Venus nodded.  
“How do we get in,” Sailor Mercury asked. “I can’t see any entrances…”  
“The entrance I made last time is on the other side,” Venus replied. “The best way in was to break through the wall.”  
The group walked around the airship and quickly saw the hole Sailor Venus was talking about.  
“It’s a bit small,” Sailor Jupiter noted. “Want me to make it big enough to walk through?”  
“Don’t, it’ll make too much noise,” Mars responded. “We can crawl through a hole like that no problem.”  
Artemis nudged at his earmuffs with his paw, managing to push them off his head after a few attempts. He then helped Luna with hers.  
“We got pretty lucky with where this thing landed,” he commented. “We’re still just barely within the convergence area of the boosted communicators.”  
“Um,” Venus reacted.  
“The energies coming out from the airship are still being cancelled out,” Mercury helped, “but if it crashed much further away than this, they wouldn’t be.”  
“Are your ears okay like this,” Jupiter asked.  
“Yes,” Luna answered. “The sound waves that cancel out the energies are very quiet all the way in here, since they’ve lost most of their energy already.”  
“Forget about the science stuff for now,” Mars cut in. “Let’s go inside.”  
“Yeah,” the others nodded.

Crawling through the hole in the side of the gondola, the Sailor Warriors and the cats entered the airship. Unlike when Sailor Venus, Luna and Artemis were inside the night before, the damage done to the airship now let light shine down from above. The light was distorted and appeared to shine down from massive holes, and it was pure white rather than tinted orange by the sunset. Nevertheless, it enabled the group to see where they were going much more clearly, and their jaws quickly dropped as they looked around.  
“There’s… There’s so many,” Venus whispered.  
“Far more than when we were here last night,” Luna whispered back.  
“There are mountains worth of crystals in here,” Artemis added. “I shudder to think how many there could be… How many tens of thousands… No, millions of people are stored here…!”  
The group began making their way through the distorted space within the airship. Venus and the cats walked in front, while the other three girls walked behind them and attempted to find any crystals that stood out from the rest. The prospect seemed hopeless, though, as it was impossible to see all the crystals that were covered by more crystals, and they could not risk digging through the enormous heaps only to have them collapse and alert Parle of their presence. The group continued heading down a trail between the crystals, a line of open floor space that grew steadily thinner. Eventually, a doorway became visible in the distance, at the end of the trail. Venus turned around and motioned to the other Sailor Warriors with her hands, telling them to take cover. Mercury, Jupiter and Mars stayed behind and watched from behind the crystal mounds as Venus and the cats approached the doorway. Not long after, a tall figure abruptly appeared from the other side.

“There you are, right on time,” Sailor Venus said as the airship pilot showed up in the doorway.  
Artemis took a moment to look at the woman, since there was now enough light to see her clearly. Her Ceres-themed gold bracelets were easy to see now. Additionally, she was wearing an elaborate dark purple dress with a gradient that faded into a light purple at the chest, a dress which could have been a wedding dress had it been a different colour. The woman’s eyes were green and full of fury, and her wavy, waist-length hair appeared ruffled and unkempt. Artemis felt confident in his deduction.  
“Princess Parle,” the cat said, “we’re here to put an end to your torment of the Earth.”  
“You know who I am,” the woman asked, surprised, though she quickly dismissed the topic. “Forget it. How dare you damage my ship!”  
“How dare you steal away millions of lives,” Venus shouted back.  
“I won’t have you ruin my plans when they’re less than half an hour away from completion,” Parle fumed. “This time I’ll throw you into the stratosphere!”  
Sailor Venus changed her footing, and Luna and Artemis grabbed onto her boots.  
“We’ll see,” she said, raising her hand. “Venus Love-Me…”  
“Vanish already!!” Parle threw her arm forward and generated a gust of wind stronger than a hurricane, overpowering Venus’ defensive stance and sending her flying.  
“Chain!!”  
Sailor Venus immediately launched her attack, wrapping her chain of light around Parle’s body. The princess quickly smashed the chain with her hands, but the Sailor Warrior managed to lose all her backward momentum in time, and she landed on her feet on the floor of the airship. Luna and Artemis hurried away, while Venus prepared to defend herself from another attack.  
“You know a way to get around one of my moves, good for you,” Parle frowned. “But that’s fine, I have others. Time for you to stop meddling! Cosmic-”  
“Fire Soul!!” Sailor Mars peeked out from her hiding spot and launched her shot of flames at Parle, hitting her abdomen and setting her dress on fire.  
“Wah!” The princess began frantically slapping out the fire, completely losing focus. She quickly managed to extinguish the flame, but right as she did, she was zapped by a Sparkling Wide Pressure orb, then splashed with a Shine Aqua Illusion.

“Blegh,” Parle spat, trying to clean her face off with her hands. Her eyes then locked onto Sailor Mars. “There’s another one! There were four of you!?”  
“What does it matter to you how many of us there are,” Mars replied, avoiding the question. “Let the people of this city go!”  
“It doesn’t matter how many of you there are, I can easily remove you all,” the princess retorted, “but you keep coming back and pestering me, and I’m fed up with it!”  
“We aren’t going to just let you go through with whatever your plans are after all this crystal business you’ve pulled,” Jupiter joined in. “Forget it!”  
“Here,” Mercury exclaimed. “Bubble Spray Freezing!”  
Sailor Mercury’s attack left Princess Parle surrounded by bubbles. The bubbles failed to freeze or harm her, but they blocked her vision, allowing the Sailor Warriors to move. All four of them rushed past Parle and through the doorway, where they found themselves in another large room, though this one was not full of crystals. After a few seconds, Parle used her wind move to dispel the bubbles, and after a moment of confusion, she quickly spotted everyone after turning around.  
“Stop trespassing,” the princess yelled, running into the room with long, jump-like steps. “Gah, I’ve had it up to here with you!!”  
“You’re trespassing on our planet,” Venus retorted. “This is a hundred percent your fault!”  
“I know you’re just going to bait and switch on me over and over,” Parle said, before taking a deep breath. “Fine, I’ll use these, even if it means I’ll have to collect crystals for a little while longer.”  
Princess Parle fished out two crystals from her dress, and the Sailor Warriors and the cats gasped when they saw them. In Parle’s left hand was a golden crystal, and in her right was a crystal with a vibrant silver shine.  
“Oh no,” Mars commented, “she already had it!”  
“That golden crystal,” Mercury wondered. “Is that… Mamoru- _san_ ’s crystal?”  
“Double Spirit Crystal Power,” Parle shouted. “Break Down!!”

Princess Parle released the two crystals from her grip, and they began hovering in the air. Thick, amber smoke began flowing from the golden crystal, and white smoke streamed out of the silver one. The two smoke clouds rapidly grew in size and began flowing into each other, the crystals themselves also moving into an arrangement as a humanoid shape was formed. The forming smoke creature took on an even more distinctly feminine humanoid shape than Suisui and Honohono had, generating a silvery white body that appeared to be wearing amber-coloured clothing. Its eyes and hair also took on a golden hue, though unlike the other smoke monsters, this one’s hair seemed to be actual hair, and its eyes had whites. The creature’s hairstyle was a shoulder-length bob cut with bangs similar to Mamoru’s, and its outfit consisted of amber forearm-length gloves with grey hems, golden high-heel boots reaching up to its knees, and a top and skirt that resembled a Sailor Warrior uniform somewhat. No collar or ribbon bow was present, however, leaving an open neck and upper chest, where the silver crystal was embedded. Over its eyes was a thin, grey mask with winged sides, and in its forehead rested the golden crystal.

“Uh oh,” Sailor Venus commented. “That’s not good.”  
“This one looks much more human than the others,” Sailor Mars said.  
“I wonder what this one’s gonna say,” Sailor Jupiter commented. “Suisui kept saying Suisui, and Honohono kept saying Honohono, so this one could be… uh…”  
“It’s Ninibaibai,” the smoke creature informed.  
“It,” the Sailor Warriors all screamed in unison, “it can actually talk!!”  
“What was that voice,” Venus reacted. “Suisui sounded like Sailor Mercury and Honohono sounded like Sailor Mars, but… but that wasn’t Sailor Moon’s voice like I expected…!”  
“Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask together,” Sailor Mercury reasoned. “That creates Sailor Chibi Moon, to put it that way… but it didn’t sound like her either…”  
“Actually,” Mars realised, “it did in a way! It’s her voice from when she was the Black Lady!”  
“What in the… You’re right,” Jupiter reacted.  
“Are you just going to stand around talking about my voice,” Ninibaibai asked.  
“Don’t complain,” Parle said. “Your goal is to either defeat them all or waste as much of their time as you can.”  
“If you say so,” the smoke creature shrugged.  
“Give it your best shot,” Jupiter said.

All four Sailor Warriors assumed defensive fighting stances. Ninibaibai followed Princess Parle’s order to delay its enemies, however, and chose not to make a move. A few moments passed with nothing happening, and the light filling the airship began to fade as the sun set outside. After a little while, Sailor Jupiter decided to take initiative.  
“Sparkling Wide Pressure!”  
Jupiter lobbed her ball of electric energy at the smoke monster with all of her might. Her target did not move an inch, and the lightning orb exploded on contact with its body.  
“Biribiri,” Ninibaibai sputtered as electric sparks rolled around on the surface of its body. “…That’s a funny… spicy baseball you have,” it then commented.  
“Well, that didn’t do much,” Sailor Venus noted.  
“What in the world did you just say,” Jupiter reacted. “Spicy baseball!?”  
“Here, let me try,” Sailor Mars said, stepping forward. “Burning… Mandala!”  
Mars quickly generated her eight disks of fire, launching them all in Ninibaibai’s general direction. Six of them crashed into the smoke monster, while two of them missed their mark slightly, flying into the background. Ninibaibai once again showed no major signs of being affected, though when it noticed that its outfit caught on fire, it began frantically patting it to put it out.  
“Hey, don’t ruin my skirt,” the smoke creature shouted. “What’s the matter with you!?”  
“Um, okay,” Sailor Mars reacted.  
“Huh,” Sailor Mercury muttered to herself, looking past Ninibaibai and over at Parle. For some reason, the princess had made a mad dash over to the side to parry one of the Burning Mandala fire disks that missed their mark.  
“Here, have this in return,” Ninibaibai said, stretching its arm out and aiming its palm at the floor in front of the Sailor Warriors. “Bye-Bye Bomber!”  
At an extreme speed, a ball of light energy burst forth from the smoke monster’s hand. The Sailor Warriors shrieked as the energy sphere crashed into the floor and burst, creating an explosion that flung them into the air.

“Ugh,” Sailor Venus commented as she got back on her feet. “Everyone make sure not to get directly hit by that attack…!”  
“No kidding,” Sailor Jupiter nodded, also standing up.  
Staying down for the moment, Sailor Mercury looked over to the side, where Luna was hiding, and beckoned with her index finger for the cat to come over to her. Luna hurried to her side while trying to make herself as small as possible.  
“Cat eyes can see really well in the dark,” Mercury whispered to Luna. “Can you look into the darkness behind Parle and see if anything is there? She seems protective of something…”  
“Sure,” Luna whispered back, taking a look. “…There’s an enormous dark blue crystal back there, easily big enough to fit a person inside it.”  
“A person,” Mercury asked.  
“Yes, I think I see the silhouette of a person within the crystal,” the cat nodded.  
“Okay, thank you,” the Sailor Warrior said, before standing up. Luna hurried back to the background, taking cover along with Artemis.  
“My turn,” Venus shouted, raising her hand. “Venus Love-Me…”  
“Sailor Venus, wait,” Sailor Mercury cut in. “Use your Crescent Beam Shower, and make it wide!”  
“Huh,” Venus reacted. “Well, okay, if you say so. Crescent Beam Shower!”  
After pivoting into firing position, Sailor Venus fired off a large collection of beams of light from her finger, spreading them out as suggested. Only about a dozen of the beams hit Ninibaibai, and the smoke monster barely even reacted to them, but many more beams flew right past it, and a few of them were headed for Princess Parle.  
“Look,” Sailor Mercury shouted, pointing at the princess.  
The Sailor Warriors all watched as Parle hastily blocked the Crescent Beams, noticing the large crystal she was standing in front of as the light beams momentarily illuminated the area.  
“Woah,” Jupiter commented.  
“What’s that,” Mars asked, mostly to herself.

The Sailor Warriors looked at each other and nodded, acknowledging what they had seen. Sailor Mars clasped her hands together and charged up her Fire Soul attack, intentionally shooting the flame shot right past Ninibaibai and towards Princess Parle, while making sure it seemed like she simply missed. Parle simply smacked the fire away, but she seemed to start getting suspicious of all the attacks coming towards her.  
“Ninibaibai,” the princess yelled. “Draw their attacks away from my direction!”  
“She’s so defensive… We can use that as a distraction,” Mars whispered to Venus, who nodded in response.  
“Hey, I’m the one who’s your opponent, you know,” Ninibaibai exclaimed, grabbing its mask. “You should keep your focus over here! Nini Mask Action!”  
The smoke creature filled its mask with energy, giving it a golden glow. Then, it threw the mask like a boomerang, and it began wildly flying around in the room. The Sailor Warriors were forced to frantically duck and jump out of the way, but they were still grazed by the mask, each of them sustaining several cuts. After a few seconds, Ninibaibai nabbed the mask out of the air and put it back on its face.  
“Ow,” Venus muttered, covering a cut on her left shoulder with her right hand. “Okay, we need to end this as quickly as possible, or we’ll get worn down…!”  
“I have an idea,” Mars said with a quiet voice, “I think. I’ll fire at Parle again. When the monster goes to protect her like it’s been ordered to, chain it down, and I’ll grab the crystals.”

“Here goes,” Sailor Mars shouted as she collected her energy in her index fingers. “Fire Soul!”  
Mars directly aimed at Princess Parle as she fired, this time making her target obvious.  
“I said you’re supposed to be fighting me,” Ninibaibai yelled as it sprinted over to protect its creator.  
“Venus Love-Me Chain!!”  
Joining in, Sailor Venus launched her golden chain at the smoke monster, which had only just managed to deflect Mars’ attack. The chain wrapped itself around the creature’s upper torso and arms, constricting it. Sailor Mars instantly began running towards her target.  
“Hey, that’s cheap,” Ninibaibai complained, trying to wriggle itself loose. “Let me go! Ngh… I said let go! Ninibaibai Crisis Storm!!”  
As the smoke monster strained its body, a thick, white aura began enveloping it. Then, with a scream, it released its energy, with large silver and golden energy spheres shooting out of its aura in all directions. A golden ball of energy struck Sailor Mars, knocking her to the floor instantly, and a silver orb crashed into Sailor Venus and made her lose her grip on her chain. Dozens of energy spheres flew upwards and ripped through the roof of the room, making it possible to see the moon outside.  
“Stop,” Princess Parle yelled. “Stop already!!”  
“Sorry,” Ninibaibai responded, ceasing her attack instantly.  
“What’s with you being so bratty,” the princess asked. “Don’t destroy the ship in a fit!”  
“But I had to get myself loose,” the smoke creature pouted. “How am I meant to protect you if-”  
“Shine Aqua Illusion!”  
“Sparkling Wide Pressure!!”  
Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter’s attacks flew directly into Ninibaibai while its back was turned, first splashing it with water and then giving it a powerful shock of electricity.  
“Biribiribiri,” the smoke creature sputtered in an almost robotic voice.  
Seizing the moment, Sailor Mars jumped back on her feet and sprinted towards Ninibaibai, just barely managing to grab onto the crystal in its forehead before the effects of the combination attack wore off.  
“Wah,” Ninibaibai reacted. “What are you-”  
Mars screamed as she pulled on the crystal with all her might, ripping it out of the smoke monster’s head. As the crystal stopped resisting and came loose, she fell over backwards. Ninibaibai began shrieking in response, and its eyes went blank.  
“Venus Love-Me Chain!”  
Wasting no time, Sailor Venus wrapped her chain attack around the silver crystal in the smoke creature’s chest, yanking it out with all her power. Without its crystals, Ninibaibai quickly disintegrated.

“Good thinking, everyone,” Sailor Venus celebrated. “We actually managed to get the crystals!”  
“Crystal spirits aren’t known for being smart,” Princess Parle commented to herself, before speaking up. “But that’s fine! If I can’t use the crystals against you, I’ll just have to deal with you myself after all! Five minutes is all I need!”  
“We need to find a way to restore the crystals,” Sailor Jupiter exclaimed. “Does anybody have any ideas!?”  
“Um, uh,” Sailor Mercury stammered, “Usagi- _chan_ and Mamoru- _san_ were going on a date, and they were probably doing something together when they were transformed…”  
“Oh no,” Sailor Venus said, “they could have been anywhere! Usagi- _chan_ isn’t the best at picking out romantic places to go to… Maybe they went to the arcade? How are we gonna emulate the arcade from here!?”  
“There’s no way,” Sailor Jupiter commented.  
“…Or you can just keep talking amongst yourselves until I finish, I suppose,” Parle muttered.  
“Quick, give me the crystal,” Sailor Mars suddenly shouted.  
“Huh? Okay,” Sailor Venus reacted, tossing the silver crystal to her.  
“Usagi- _chan_ probably did pick the arcade, but Mamoru- _san_ is better at being a romantic.” Mars held the golden and silver crystals high into the air, letting the moonlight shine down on them. “He could have taken her for a moonlit walk afterwards! If so, the moonlight should bring them back! Right?”  
“Yeah, it should,” Venus replied. “Maybe it’ll work!”

The four Sailor Warriors, along with Luna, Artemis and Princess Parle in different parts of the background, watched for any reaction from the crystals. A few seconds passed without anything happening, but then, the air in front of Sailor Mars seemed to start getting distorted. Sailor Venus began loudly celebrating as two humanoid figures began being generated. A short while later, the crystals vanished out of existence in Mars’ hands, and Usagi and Mamoru fell to the floor in front of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it’s a little late for a music suggestion now, but while writing these final three chapters, I was listening to Yuji Ohno’s album Cosmos a fair bit. You can read Mindful of Love while listening to that album if you’d like, maybe you’ll find it interesting. In particular, I used the song Over the Galaxy to get inspiration for Princess Parle.
> 
> One of Ninibaibai’s attacks, the Bye-Bye Bomber, is based on Tuxedo Mask’s attack, called Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber, from the manga and the Crystal anime. It doesn’t appear in the 90s anime. There his main attack is to throw roses! But 90s anime Tuxedo Mask is still great without the energy blast.
> 
> The smoke creature names are simple Japanese wordplay, if you were wondering. Suisui is named after “sui”, one of the readings of the kanji 水, water. Honohono comes from “honoo”, a reading of the kanji 炎, flame. Ninibaibai is based on 二倍, nibai, meaning double in this case. My working name for Ninibaibai was “Raburabu”, or Lovelove, for a little while, though! You can probably imagine why. You can probably also see why I didn’t end up going with it.


	6. Chapter 6

### Act 6: Mindful Moon

As their restoration finished, Usagi and Mamoru appeared in the middle of the air within Princess Parle’s airship, and they quickly fell to the floor face-down once gravity grabbed them. After a moment of confusion, the two looked up and around.  
“What happened,” Mamoru mumbled. “We’re definitely not in the park anymore…”  
“Where are we,” Usagi asked, before she noticed Sailor Mercury standing off to the left. “Huh?”  
“Everyone’s here,” Mamoru said, getting on his feet. “Looks like we’ve been missing something big.”  
“We don’t really have time to explain,” Sailor Venus said, “but the short version is that Princess Parle, the lady over there, has been turning everyone into crystals, including you two, and we just managed to bring you back.”  
“We’ll tell you the whole story once we’re done,” Sailor Mars joined in. “Usagi- _chan_! Transform!”  
“Uh,” Usagi reacted, “okay… Moon Crystal Power! Make Up!”  
Clutching the brooch attached to her school uniform, Usagi became coated in a bright, silvery white light, and a second later, she emerged as Sailor Moon. Next to her, Mamoru underwent a spontaneous transformation into Tuxedo Mask.  
“She changed,” Parle commented. “So did the other four of you also transform before coming here, or are you just copying her outfit? Who are you people anyway?”  
“Just copying her outfit!? How could you reach that conclusion- Never mind,” Venus reacted. “Girls, who are we?”

“Oh,” Sailor Mercury perked up. “I am the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and intelligence, Sailor Mercury! Douse yourself in water and repent!”  
“And,” Sailor Jupiter said while striking a pose, “I’m the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and courage, Sailor Jupiter! I’ll fill you with so much regret it’ll shock you!”  
“I,” Sailor Mars joined in, “am the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and passion, Sailor Mars! In the name of Mars, I will chastise you!”  
“As for me,” Sailor Venus declared, “I’m the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and beauty, Sailor Venus! Allow me to punish you in the name of love!”  
“…Oh, right,” Sailor Moon reacted after a quick second. “I am the pretty sailor-suited warrior of love and justice, Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!”  
“I am one who protects and aids those who fight in the name of love, peace and justice,” Tuxedo Mask added, improvising. “I am Tuxedo Mask!”  
A moment passed in silence while Parle seemed to slowly process what she had just seen and heard. Then, her expression went from blank to deathly furious.  
“Why does every single one of you have to be some kind of warrior of love?! As if you even know what that means!!”  
“Huh,” Sailor Moon blinked.  
“I was only going to delay you for the few minutes I still need, but for insulting me like this, I am going to turn you into crystals and shatter you into dust! Cosmic Meteor!!”  
Parle thrusted her right arm forward and fired a large, dark sphere from her palm. The orb of darkness gained a pale white aura which formed a tail like a comet as it flew like a cannonball towards Sailor Moon.  
“Look out,” Tuxedo mask shouted, jumping in the way of the attack. The Cosmic Meteor crashed into his chest, sending him flying backwards into Sailor Moon and making them both fall to the floor. “Guh!”  
“Wah!”

“Ogh,” Tuxedo Mask coughed, crawling off of Sailor Moon and letting her get back up. “What power…! What… pain…”  
“We’ll pay you back for that one,” Sailor Mars said as she and the other three Sailor Warriors stepped up to stand side by side with Sailor Moon. “Prepare yourself!”  
Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus all moved their hands into position as they prepared to fire off their attacks at Parle simultaneously. Sailor Moon herself made no move, however.  
“Shut up,” the princess snarled. “Your voices are like nails on a chalkboard, and your attacks are as worthless as pebbles in a shoe! And your teamwork… your teamwork…! Gah!!”  
Princess Parle clawed at the air, generating a gust of wind with the strength of a hurricane and blowing the Sailor Warriors away. She then followed her move up with another Cosmic Meteor, shooting at Sailor Venus before she had any time to recover or react. Venus was struck directly by the dark orb, and she was sent flying, crashing into the floor several feet away.  
“Mina,” Artemis shouted, running to Venus’ side.  
“Minako- _chan_ ,” Sailor Moon yelled, before getting back on her feet.  
“Mamoru- _san_ ,” Luna said in a low voice, having snuck over to Tuxedo Mask. “You have to convince Sailor Moon to attack! She’s the only one who can beat her!”  
“I… I can’t do that,” Tuxedo Mask replied, before coughing again. “Princess Parle isn’t a monster, or evil…”  
“I know that,” Luna reacted, “but sometimes people who aren’t bad do bad things and have to be stopped…!”  
“Princess Parle’s Cosmic Meteor was overflowing with not just power, but with pain, with despair… Sailor Moon- no, Usako, knows as well as I do that there must be another way!”

“Time to make good on my promise,” Parle yelled. “Spirit Crystal…!”  
“You are not turning any of us back into crystals,” Sailor Jupiter shouted back. “No way! Sparkling Wide Pressure!!”  
Jupiter threw her sphere of electricity at Parle as hard as she could. The princess simply swatted it away once it reached her, however.  
“Mind your business! Cosmic Meteor!”  
Parle shot a dark orb at Sailor Jupiter as if it was a cannonball. Jupiter put her hands in front of her torso and caught the attack, barely holding it off as it pushed her backwards.  
“Starburst,” Princess Parle added. Instantly, the Cosmic Meteor detonated with a huge, pure black explosion of energy. Sailor Jupiter shrieked as the shockwave blew her away, and she ended up landing close to Sailor Venus.  
“Stop this,” Sailor Moon muttered. “Stop this…!”  
“What are you doing? Haven’t you been listening to what she’s been saying? Her heart is completely closed off,” Sailor Mars said. “Words won’t reach her. We have no choice but to attack!”  
“No…! There has to be another option…”  
“Burning Mandala!!” Sailor Mars summoned her eight disks of fire and sent them all directly towards Parle.  
“How about you burn instead,” the princess howled, swiping through the air and blowing the fire right back at Mars, who hurriedly jumped out of the way.  
“Phew,” Mars reacted, trying to get back into fighting position.  
“Don’t bother,” Parle commented. “Just stay down! Photon Finish!”  
Princess Parle shot a beam of black energy from her left index finger. The dark beam flew at an immense speed and immediately struck the gem in Sailor Mars’ tiara. The force of the attack was transferred into Mars’ head, flinging it backwards before the rest of her body could keep up, making her crash into the floor.

“Please,” Sailor Moon said, starting to tear up. “Please stop…”  
“We know you’re suffering,” Tuxedo Mask joined in with a weak voice. “Let us try to help you…!”  
“I’m sorry,” Sailor Mercury said, “but I think she’s beyond reasoning with.”  
“Sailor Mercury is right,” Luna added. “I understand how you feel, but there is no other way!”  
“I can’t,” Sailor Moon replied, shaking her head. “I won’t give up on her…!”  
“You want to help me,” Princess Parle scoffed. “You don’t even know what you’re offering! You don’t have anything to offer!!”  
“Get out of the way, Sailor Moon,” Sailor Mercury shouted as she began running towards her ally.  
“Cosmic Meteor Starburst!!”  
Sailor Mercury barely managed to push Sailor Moon out of the way before Parle’s attack reached her. Mercury took the full force of the explosion, shrieking as she was sent flying into the background.  
“Princess Parle, please,” Sailor Moon pleaded. “Please stop! Hurting my friends won’t relieve your own pain… Please open your heart to us!”  
“Stop talking to me as if you can do anything for me,” Parle yelled. “Photon Finish!!”  
“Aagh,” Sailor Moon cried out as the black beam of energy struck her, though she managed to remain standing.  
“And don’t look at me like that,” the princess continued, starting to fire more beams as tears started to form in her eyes. “Like you pity me! Like you understand me! As if a human, a tiny speck of existence that doesn’t even last for a single century, could ever know how I feel!!”  
“Kyaaahh!”  
“Usako!!” Tuxedo Mask attempted to come to Sailor Moon’s aid, but found himself barely able to move.  
“You’re… wrong,” Sailor Moon said through gritted teeth and teary eyes, trying to ignore the attacks that were hitting her. “Your heart beats just like mine… and you’ve had yours broken, just like I once had…”  
Luna, Artemis and Tuxedo Mask gasped as they saw a hollow, silver aura start to form around Sailor Moon.  
“You don’t have to separate yourself from us,” Sailor Moon said as her outfit began to transform, changing from the sailor uniform into a regal white and gold dress. “You don’t have to suffer all by yourself… Please, let me help you heal…”  
Princess Parle ceased her attacks the moment the transformation finished, and a wave of realisation seemed to wash over her.  
“P-Princess Serenity…?”

“With that dress, there’s no mistaking it,” Princess Parle reacted. “You’re Princess Serenity! But… but the Silver Millennium was destroyed so long ago…!”  
“We were reborn on Earth in this time period,” Princess Serenity responded.  
“Then… Are you all Silver Millennium residents? What about the queen who holds the Legendary Silver Crystal, where is she?”  
“All of us except this one,” Serenity said, reaching a hand down towards Tuxedo Mask. The moment he grabbed her hand, he became able to stand up, and his outfit was instantly transformed. “This is the reincarnation of Endymion, prince of the Earth. Back then, an evil entity called Queen Metallia influenced a woman named Beryl to make the kingdom of Earth go to war against the Silver Millennium. Prince Endymion tried to warn us and tried to stop it, but he was… he lost his life trying. And when I lost him, I…”  
“We’ve found each other again now,” Endymion cut in. “That’s what matters. As for the Silver Crystal…”  
“Oh, right,” Serenity perked up. “I have it.”  
“You have it? In that case…” Parle suddenly got on her knees. “Please use the crystal’s powers to free my Garnets!!”  
“Huh,” Endymion reacted.  
“Garnets is imprisoned in the crystal behind me,” Princess Parle begged. “Please use the Legendary Silver Crystal to break the spell and set him free!”  
“Hmm,” Luna reacted from the side.  
“Be… be careful,” Sailor Venus tried to advise as she and the other Sailor Warriors attempted to get back up.  
“I don’t think she’s planning anything,” Artemis said. “It seems genuine.”  
Serenity and Endymion nodded to each other, then approached the giant crystal, still holding hands. Princess Serenity held the Moon Rod high in the air to imbue it with the Silver Crystal’s power, then placed it against the side of the crystal. A wave of silver energy rippled across the giant crystal’s surface, followed by two more waves. Then, the crystal shattered, becoming reduced to magical dust which faded away into nothing. At the point where the center of the crystal used to be, a man could be seen; a tall man with sharp ears, dark brown hair in a style not too different from Mamoru’s, a pale complexion and an outfit consisting of a cream white suit, a white undershirt, light brown leather shoes and a light indigo cape. Princess Parle ran over to the hovering man and caught him in her arms as he began to fall.

“What,” the man muttered as he began regaining consciousness, speaking in a clean and somewhat light voice. The man opened his eyes, revealing their lilac colour. “…Parle?”  
“G-Garnets,” Princess Parle reacted, starting to cry. “Oh, Garnets!!”  
Parle lifted Garnets up into a standing position, before changing her grip on him and starting to hug him. As the two embraced, the dark purple colour in Parle’s dress faded away and became white. While they watched, Serenity took the opportunity to wrap her arm around Endymion. Endymion responded by laying his hand on Serenity’s shoulder and pulling her in. After a few long seconds, Parle released her grip on Garnets and moved to stand next to him while facing Serenity and Endymion.  
“Thank you so, so much,” Parle bowed.  
“I must admit I’m a bit lost,” Garnets said, “but you’re the princess of the Silver Millennium, right?”  
“Princess Serenity,” Parle helped.  
“They seem to all have that name,” Garnets commented.  
“What happened to you,” Endymion asked. “How did you end up trapped in that crystal?”  
“I think it’s best if Parle explains,” Garnets replied.  
“Sure, no problem,” Parle nodded.

“Garnets and I have always been close. We would meet much more often than members of the Crystal Constellation usually do, and I would sneak away from my duties as princess to see him. We eventually made it official that we were getting married. Unfortunately, Garnets is popular. Very popular. A woman by the name of Amethista attacked him as he was on his way to the wedding, using a spell to shut him inside that huge crystal. She cried that if she couldn’t have him, then no one should, and then she self-destructed. I can’t make someone undo their spell if they no longer exist, so that was it. Garnets was locked away and I couldn’t do a thing about it. The only way to free him was to overpower the crystal spell, and I had no way of doing that. I tried and tried and tried… The wedding day came and went, then the whole month. I became desperate to get my Garnets back… The rest is a bit of a blur. I feel like I lost my mind. I tried collecting enough energy to break the crystal by harnessing the energy of human lives… I almost ended millions of lives to get a single one back. I’m sorry, it wasn’t… it wasn’t meant to be like this.”

“That’s so sad,” Princess Serenity reacted.  
“I don’t like this kind of love story,” Sailor Venus commented to herself off to the side. “It should be fateful encounters and romantic dates, not jealousy and heartbreak…”  
“Parle, don’t you think it’s time to set the Earthlings free,” Garnets asked. “You don’t need them locked up in here anymore.”  
“You’re right,” Princess Parle replied. “But I’m going to undo the damage the crystal spirits did first. They were created as a distraction for the girls over there who call themselves Sailor Warriors so that they’d be busy until I had all the crystals I needed, but they did most likely cause some damage where they were created.”  
“I don’t know of any spell that can do that,” Garnets commented.  
“No, we’ll have to do it manually. But I owe it to them. It’s my fault in the first place. In the meantime, could you maybe look into repairing the ship?”  
“Sure.”  
“Phew,” Serenity sighed, running out of steam and transforming down to being just Usagi. Endymion was automatically turned back into Tuxedo Mask, before he transformed back to Mamoru of his own will.

“You should go home and rest,” Garnets said. “When you wake up in the morning, you should find that everything is back to normal.”  
“Though I am wondering about one thing,” Parle commented. “There aren’t as many crystals in the storage space as there ought to be by now…”  
“We found a way to cancel that spell out,” Sailor Mercury responded. “People stopped being transformed into crystals several hours ago. We did our best to keep it a secret, just in case.”  
“You cancelled out my magic? That’s a new one,” Parle reacted. “You’ll have to stop cancelling it out if I’m going to be able to undo the spell, though.”  
“No problem,” Artemis replied.  
“I’ll take the cats to the arcade and get that whole thing sorted out,” Sailor Venus said. “Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, can you help Mamoru- _san_ get home? Without the energy he got from Princess Serenity, he seems pretty tapped out. Sailor Mercury, you should go with Usagi- _chan_.”  
“Okay,” the other girls nodded.  
The group began making their way out of the airship the same way they came in, leaving Parle and Garnets alone. Outside, Venus helped Luna and Artemis with their earmuffs, before picking them up and carrying them under her arms as she made her way to Game Center Crown. The other three Sailor Warriors helped Usagi and Mamoru get home, spending a good deal of time walking them down the moonlit streets and explaining everything that had happened while they were gone. At the arcade, Luna and Artemis turned the soundwave broadcast off, while Venus headed back out and collected the communicators and megaphones they had been broadcast through. When Luna finally headed home to Usagi’s house, the clock was right past midnight, and she found Usagi fast asleep in her bed. Feeling tired herself, Luna rolled up on the bed and went to sleep as well.

The next morning, Luna awoke to find that Usagi was gone. Concerned, she hurried out of the empty bed and ran downstairs, though most of her worries subsided when she saw Usagi’s mother Ikuko in the kitchen.  
“Hi Luna,” Ikuko said. “Were you wondering where Usagi- _chan_ is? She actually got up early for once, at least for a Saturday, and said she had to go somewhere. I wonder what she’s up to?”  
“Usagi- _chan_ was gone for a day, so she subconsciously thinks it’s Friday even though it’s Saturday,” Luna thought to herself. She then meowed to Ikuko and began to leave.  
Luna headed out of the house, deciding to go to Game Center Crown. The arcade was filled with customers, none of which she knew, so she headed upstairs, to the Fruits Parlor Crown café. The café was less populated than the arcade, though it still saw plenty of traffic. On a large table next to a window overlooking the street, Luna saw Artemis sitting and waiting, and she walked over to join him.  
“Good morning,” Artemis greeted. “Out looking for people?”  
“Hello,” Luna answered. “Usagi- _chan_ actually managed to leave the house without me noticing somehow.”  
“Mina hurried out of the house really early today too,” Artemis said. “Seems like the girls have been orchestrating something. She said everyone’s going to show up here later, so I guess we can just wait for them.”  
“Oh well,” Luna yawned. “I’ll take a catnap, then.”

“Look at how full of energy everybody is today,” Usagi commented, almost skipping down the street along with Mamoru. “It’s Saturday, but it doesn’t feel like Saturday at all!”  
Usagi was dressed in a pink top with a light grey jacket over it, a tight navy blue skirt, and short brown boots. Mamoru’s outfit was a black shirt and a green coat, along with khaki pants and brown leather shoes.  
“Just try not to get messed up on Monday,” Mamoru responded, carrying a bunch of shopping bags. “You’ll get in trouble if you sleep in as if it’s a Sunday.”  
“I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine! Probably,” Usagi handwaved, before looking the other way. “By the way, how long are you guys planning on staying?”  
“Earth is a nice place, but we need to get home soon,” Princess Parle replied, Garnets and her also having joined Usagi’s shopping trip. They were both wearing the same outfits as the night before, though Parle had purchased, and was wearing, a large, cream-white hat. A grey ribbon was tied around the hat, and in it, two purple daisy-rose flowers, like the red one Makoto had purchased, were placed.  
“There’s a wedding waiting for us, after all,” Garnets added, carrying as many shopping bags as Mamoru. “Weddings in the Crystal Constellation take a while in Earth terms, and since we have to start the process over, we have a lot of things to do.”  
“Aw, that’s too bad,” Usagi replied. “Won’t you at least come to the café with us?”  
Parle and Garnets looked at each other. “Okay, just for a little while,” Parle then said.

At Fruits Parlor Crown, Luna woke up as Minako and Ami sat down by the table she and Artemis were on.  
“Hello there,” Ami greeted.  
“Hiya,” Minako added.  
“Wow, Ami- _chan_ ,” Luna reacted. “This isn’t like your usual fashion sense. Are you trying something new?”  
“Mina dressed you up, didn’t she,” Artemis figured.  
“Well,” Ami replied bashfully, “yes, she did pick out this outfit for me…”  
“Don’t worry, it looks great on you,” Minako said.  
Ami was dressed in an outfit very similar to the one she borrowed from Minako the day before, though this version of the outfit used a longer skirt with a more azure colour. Minako was wearing a lightweight outfit consisting of an orange t-shirt, light blue short shorts, white sneakers and sunglasses.  
“Rei- _chan_ and Mako- _chan_ should be here any moment now,” Ami said, looking at her wristwatch.  
“They’re right outside,” Luna informed, looking out the window.  
A few seconds later, Rei and Makoto entered the café and came to the table.  
“Hey guys,” Rei said.  
“Minako- _chan_ ,” Makoto asked, “you didn’t give her those clothes from yesterday as hand-me-downs, did you?”  
“No, no, of course not,” Minako replied. “We went shopping earlier! These are new!”  
Makoto’s outfit consisted of a verdigris top with long sleeves, hot pink pants and brown sneakers. Rei was wearing a bright red shirt and a light pink jacket, a pair of white pants and deep red shoes. The girls sat down at the table and began looking through the menu, discussing what to buy. A few minutes later, Usagi, Mamoru, Parle and Garnets entered the café, though not without complications.

“Sheesh, doorways are small on this planet,” Garnets said, holding his forehead.  
“Oh, you klutz,” Parle giggled. “It’s just that we’re tall compared to the Earthlings.”  
“Hi everyone,” Usagi waved to the table where the rest of the group was waiting.  
“Sorry we’re a little late,” Mamoru added as his group arrived at the table.  
“Not at all,” Artemis replied, shaking his head.  
“Oh, you brought Princess Parle and Garnets along,” Minako commented. “How did the restoration go?”  
“All the crystals have been turned back to people and sent to where they were or would have been,” Parle replied.  
“The airship is flying fit, too,” Garnets added.  
“Hey, what happens if someone gets turned back into a person but they were flying,” Usagi asked, suddenly concerned. “Do they start falling out of the sky?”  
“You have aircraft,” Parle asked back in surprise.  
“…You mean you didn’t see any planes or helicopters the whole time you were here,” Rei asked.  
“Humans invented aircraft a few centuries ago starting with hot air balloons,” Ami informed.  
“Interesting,” Parle reacted. “I suppose you’ve progressed a lot lately, then. In any case, no, the crystals were sent to where they would have been, so they would be turned to people at the aircrafts’ landing sites.”  
“And that explains why people didn’t react all that strongly to seeing the airship,” Garnets commented. “Speaking of which, we should probably get back to it and head back to the Crystal Constellation.”  
“You’re leaving already,” Makoto asked.  
“We do have a wedding to hold,” Parle answered. “Thanks for all the souvenirs, Usagi, Mamoru. We’ll treasure them as wedding gifts.”  
“Oh, uh, sure,” Mamoru responded.  
“Have a happy marriage,” Minako said. The cats and the other girls repeated the message soon after.  
“Thanks,” Garnets bowed. “Maybe we’ll see each other again someday, but for now, farewell!”  
Parle and Garnets locked hands, and their bodies became translucent. While they were semi-transparent, they jumped through the window and towards the airship, passing through it without affecting it at all. The girls, the cats and Mamoru all simply stared in awe at the move. Then, after a few seconds, they saw the airship start to rapidly gain altitude, before it vanished into thin air.

“There they go,” Usagi sighed, looking up at the sky through the window. “I wish we could’ve come to the wedding.”  
“Let’s just be happy for them from here,” Mamoru said.  
“Hey, Mamo- _chan_ , let’s get married too!”  
“L-Let’s at least get you through middle school first, Usako…”  
The other four girls laughed.  
“I’m glad this all ended up alright,” Rei said. “There’s been this vague sense of unease in my heart, but it’ll probably be fine now.”  
“Crazy how big the universe really is,” Makoto commented. “A society in the asteroid belt, huh… Makes me wonder if there aren’t people living all over the place out there.”  
“Most of space is completely uninhabitable,” Ami responded. “At least as far as conventional life is concerned. Of course, when a being like Queen Metallia can exist, nothing can be entirely ruled out…”  
“I’m sure another enemy will show up eventually,” Minako smiled, “but I’m also sure that we can deal with them no problem. Right, girls?”  
“Absolutely,” Makoto replied.  
“Mhm,” Ami and Rei nodded. Usagi did not respond, as she was busy being clingy with Mamoru, and neither did he, as he was busy dealing with her.  
“I hope it’ll be a while, though,” Makoto said, finishing her thought. As she looked out through the window of the café, a yellow sports car cruised by outside; a car that carried a person with short, blonde hair in the driver’s seat and a person with long, wavy aquamarine hair in the passenger seat.

**_The end… and a new beginning…_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have uploaded some art relating to this fanfic on my pixiv page. Here’s a link: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/88476865 In case I needed it, I tried to come up with a Japanese title as well. So Mindful of Love has the “alternate” Japanese title 美少女戦士セーラームーン外伝：愛を忘れないで！ (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Gaiden: Ai wo Wasurenai de!, i.e Pretty Girl Warrior Sailor Moon Sidestory: Don’t Forget About Love!). I know that that title isn’t quite the same thing as the main title, but one definition of being mindful is to be careful to not forget something, and that’s the definition that’s in use here, so it’s close enough for what I’m doing. Hopefully I did a well enough job of showing why that’s the title with this chapter!
> 
> As you can tell, this is the final chapter and the end of the story. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little story I cooked up! It’s certainly little in comparison to my other works, namely JoJo Action Blue (I’m going to get back to writing it, I promise) and the ever-looming giant Dragon Ball Ultimate. But it’s that relatively small size that’s enabled me to actually fully publish Mindful of Love in a decent amount of time. I think I’ve learned a thing or two from this… Anyway, that’s all! See you again sometime!


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